The Rise of Marceline
by lizzyleefree
Summary: Before there was Finn, Jake, or a land called Ooo, there was a war, a small girl who needed to survive...and a demon who needed a successor.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 It's the end of the world as we know it**

A small girl rode on a bicycle through the streets of her refugee camp. She watched her teddy bear, Harley, bounce up and down in the basket as she bumped over the little rocks. She imagined that he liked bumpy rides, like her, and hopefully didn't get a tummy ache from them like her mom. He was held together with patches and his fur was faded and bald in many places, but Marceline figured this was ok because he kind of matched her. Her faded purple dress had patches, too, and there were generous holes in her striped stockings. If he was perfect, then he would need to belong to some other girl that lived in a place with washing machines, fabric softener, and all the nice things teddy bears like that the adults talked about having back in their day.

"Hello, Mr. Marlow!" she waved, riding past an old man sitting on a raggedy old camping chair outside his families' shack. The old man's eyes crinkled with delight at the young girls' energy and he gave her a hearty wave.

Marlow was the only man in the camp, but only because he was too old to be drafted when the war started. There used to be other old men, but none of them had made it through as much as Marlow had. To Marceline, he was so old that he might as well have been immortal. Even though he walked slow and was hunched over, Marceline thought he was tough. She went to hear stories from him almost every day because she wanted to be just like him.

Marcie continues to ride through the dirt streets, weaving her way around several orphaned children playing with discarded cans and boxes. The women she passed all looked old and tired, even the ones in their 20's. They hung up rags on clotheslines and washed squalling toddlers in tubs. They mended socks and jumpers while squinting to see the light of the sunset through the smog. They boiled murky water to make it drinkable. They gathered around fires to throw the meager pieces of squirrel, cabbage, salt and pepper they had for the camps' supper. These were all things that Marcie and all the other children had been taught to do at a young age, but she was always the most talented as a tinkerer. At the age of 7 she had found the ancient, rusted bike she currently rode on, and over the course of a month got it running like she had assumed bikes ran brand new. Marcie grew up with no knowledge of gender roles telling her she couldn't be a mechanic. In a society of virtually all one gender, the concept of a necessary role relegated to one gender or the other seems ludicrous.

So, at a young age people came to her to mend broken pots, pans, and other things that were hard to replace. She was also known for making instruments to play music with around the camp fire. In her opinion, music seemed more necessary to provide than kitchen utensils. After all, how would someone be motivated to cook if there was not a shred of hope left in their soul? Sometimes music and stories was all that kept the hope there in the camp.

She was nearing the outer walls where her mom's guard post was. Her shift was about to end and Marcie was excited to walk her back home and tell her about all the neat little gadgets and trinkets she had found to use that day in new projects.

Marceline saw her mom far off and began to speed up on her bike, but the next thing she knew she flew off it onto the hard ground. Her knees and palms skinned against the tiny rocks and she sat up to look at the dirt and blood mixing on her pale flesh with tears welling up in her eyes. She looked around for what she must have hit, but saw nothing. The voice behind her suddenly told her that it was not her fault she had fallen.

"Hey, Marceline, you having fun showing off on your new bike?" taunted Abby behind her.

Marceline glanced over at her bike to see the stick that Abby had shoved in the now bent spokes of her back wheel and stared back at the ground. She struggled to keep her temper inside of her and her breath became rapid and heavy with anger. A small rock hit the back of her head and the pain caused her to stand up and wheel around on her opponent, who stood at least a foot above her.

"I asked you a question, girl." hissed Abby. "Why are you keeping the bike all to yourself?"

"I fixed it. It's mine." huffed little Marceline. "If you wanted a turn all you had to do was ask nicely."

"What are you going to do if I don't ask nicely?" Abby gave a smug look over towards the bike and backed towards it.

Marceline saw Abby's hand reach towards Harley and her eyes widened with fear. She let out an angry scream as she dived for the bear, clasping her hands on it just as Abby did. Once Abby grabbed hold of it she lifted it and Marcie clear off the ground. Marcie screeched and kicked, but it was of no use but to draw the attention of everyone towards their squabble.

Finally, there was a ripping sound, and Marceline landed with a painful thud on the ground, holding only Harley's arm, stained with the blood from her scraped hands.

Suddenly Marceline was scooped up in her mother's strong arms. She burrowed herself into her chest, not wanting anyone to see the tears stinging her eyes.

"Abby, dear, give the bear and the bicycle back." Marcie's mom said as nicely as a mother could to someone who had just hurt her daughter.

"Why should I? She can't think she can just parade the little toys she makes around while the rest of her play with sticks. I'm just standing up for my peers." said Abby with a sneer.

"My daughter does make toys for the children who are actually friends with her!" spat Marceline's mom before quickly regaining her composure. "You shouldn't think you'll always be able to do whatever you want to the younger children. We're all just trying to survive here."

"Actually, I think I can do whatever I want. Have you forgotten that my mother is the camps' only doctor? If she feels our family is being mistreated we might consider relocating to someone with nicer neighbors."

Marcie's mom glanced at all the onlookers, fear frozen on their faces at the thought of losing their only medical help. She also felt the dampness of her shirt from her daughter's eyes. Marceline may be mad at her for the compromise she was about to make, but it was the only way to keep the peace. She took a deep swallow of disgust at having to beg a nasty teenager to give something back that was never hers.

"Abby, please, I'll let you keep the bike if you'll just give back the bear."

There was a silence as Abby considered the offer. Finally she said coldly, "And you give me your dinner rations for three days."

Marcie's mom only hesitated for a portion of a second before she nodded in agreement and took the bear. Marcie couldn't take it anymore. She unlatched herself and ran all the way to their house on the outer edge of the camp.

Her mother was in a minute later and found her racked in sobs in the corner. Without a word, she sat and drew Marcie into her lap. She shushed her softly and ran her fingers through her jaggedly cut, thick, black hair. Marcie cried so hard that she struggled to breathe, and when that had finally normalized the hiccups set in. It was a long time before either of them said anything.

"I'm sorry about your bike, honey." said her mother softly.

"I know, mom. It's not your fault." A few more involuntary sobs seized her chest followed by a series of coughs. "I'm sorry about your food. You didn't have to do that just for Harley. He's broken now any way."

"No, no, Marcie. Don't be sorry. I know Harley is a very good friend to you, so it was worth it." She whispered. "Besides, you know we can mend Harley up just as well as we can mend you up."

Marceline looked at her hands and knees and gave a little sob, "They still hurt, mom."

"I know honey, but that's why we're going to clean them and put band aids on them. Then they will be all better!" Her mom was good at sounding cheerful just to make her happy.

It worked. Marcie smiled weakly and said "Bandy up the boo-boos!" in a sing-song voice.

Marceline watched her mom work, carefully cleaning the shallow wounds with a small amount of their pre-boiled water and wrapping them with clean, white gauze. She then kissed each of the four spots, which made Marcie giggle.

"Now time for Harley's boo-boo!" said Marcie happily.

"That's right, honey, let's see him." Marcie plopped the filthy toy in her mothers' lap, who examined him carefully, pretending to be a doctor. This reminded Marcie a lot of Abby since her mom was a doctor. Suddenly a thought occurred to Marcie and she began to giggle as her mom sewed.

"What is it, goofball?" her mother asked, laughing a little beside herself.

"I bet that dipwad can't even ride a bike! She's gonna be falling all over her butt and scraping herself up, too!"

Her mom chuckled, "You're probably right. And it will be near impossible to learn with those bent up spokes she caused. I bet the only way she could fix it would be to bring it back to you!"

Marcie sighed. She knew enough about Abby's pride to know that would never happen. "She'll probably just destroy it first, just to spite me. Why does she hate me, Mom?"

Her mother stopped sewing and placed her warm hand on Marceline's cheek as she looked into her brown eyes, "Because you're special, Marceline. You don't skirt by on the status of your family like she does. You're already known for your talent by everyone here, and you're brave, kind, intelligent, and beautiful. Abby may be older than you, but she has a long way to go before she gets any of those things you have."

Marcie smiled at her moms' words, but then was silent, wondering if her dad would say the same. He died when she was 4, and she couldn't really remember what kind of things he had said to her.

"What are you thinking about, Marcie?" asked her mom gently.

"Will I see dad when I die?"

Her moms' face froze and she quickly went back to sewing as she compiled her answer. "Maybe. I'd like to believe so."

"Is the world ending, Mom?" asked Marceline casually.

Her mom looked up, her eyes wide with shock. "Where did you hear something like that?"

"The last time we were on the road, there was a man saying the end of the world was coming and that a man would come out of the sky to save us. Is that true?"

"I don't know, Marceline." said her mother flatly. In all truth, she was almost certain the world was ending, but if someone was going to come from the heavens to save them, it seemed he would have done it before or at least shortly after the first tirade of atom bombs blew away two entire continents. She suddenly looked at her daughter and saw the creased look of worry on her brow. She had to tell her something good. She finished up the last stitch on the bear and placed him into Marcie's waiting arms.

"Honey, I don't know about anything that happens after death. Maybe it being a surprise is part of the fun." Marcie started to nod sadly and looked away. Her mom pulled her chin to look into her eyes and said with kind conviction, "What I _do_ know is that no matter what happens or how far away we are, I will always love you. I will always listen to you when you need me. As long as we have each other, what fear does the future hold?"

Marceline nodded and hugged her mom tightly, fresh tears of melancholy happiness running down her cheeks. They broke apart when they heard the dinner bell and the small girls' heart sank again, knowing that her mother would get none of it.

Marceline tried to share her ration with her mother, but she wouldn't touch it. They were both stubborn, though, and Marceline threatened to dump her entire ration out if her mother didn't eat half of it. Marceline got time out later that night for this defiance, but what was more punishment than that was the hollow sense of hunger that kept Marceline up that night.

She finally got up, deciding she had to find something to eat. Maybe if she could hunt something outside the camp, cook it, and hide it, then she could secretly share it with Mom and Mr. Marlow.

She crept to the supply shed and picked the lock easily with a few sharp sticks she had carved. She took with her a compass, a bottle of water, and the only .410 shotgun she could find. She carefully locked the shed back up. She then walked to a hole under the wall. No guards had ever noticed it because it was just barely big enough for a small child to squeeze through. She had only noticed it because she chased a feral cat under it one day.

She got a good ways up the hill before she looked back towards the camp to make certain she was not being followed.

At first she found the woods creepy, but after a mile or so she found them peaceful. The noises of the nocturnal animals assured her that there was life in the woods, a security that swaddled her like a warm blanket. All she had to do was shoot that life and her mom would have good meat for days without missing a single ration. She covered herself with dirt and leaves, but did not start hunting just yet. Luckily, she was especially smart for her age and knew she had to be a few miles away before she started to hunt so that no one in the camp would hear the shot. She was also, however, overly simplistic like many children are, figuring she could hunt meat in abundance just by guts and cleverness when even the experienced hunters of the camp were having a hard time with it lately.

She finally reached a spot that looked like a good place to stake out. She waited a few minutes before her eyes zeroed in on a fat looking bird nestled in a tree. She cocked the gun, raised it slowly, and after taking her time to aim, pulled the trigger. She hit several feet left of the bird, and sent all the creatures resting near the tree scattering. She kicked the dirt and found another spot nearby, cocked her gun, and waited in absolute silence.

Something felt off. It took her a minute to take notice of just how silent it had become. The forest was no longer buzzing with the sound of small, scrappy, tough game. The creatures were either deep in hiding or had fled, and in that way silence in a forest at night is far more frightening than creature noises can ever be. Marcie wished more than anything that she could hug Harley right at that moment, and wondered how she could have forgotten him in her haste.

Finally, she heard a sound, but it was the last one she wanted to hear. It was the sound of planes, and then the high pitched sound of a bomb being dropped through the air. Marceline spun around and saw it; the refugee camp at the bottom of the hill right below the falling raid.

She shouted manically and began to sprint full speed towards the camp, even though she knew there was no hope of reaching it to save the end of her childhood. The explosion was deafening, and she crumpled at the sound of it, bringing her elbows up around her face. She lay there in the dirt listening to one explosion after the next as all of the things she knew got blown into the ashes now floating towards her as a black cloud on the wind. Images flashed through her mind; there was Mom, Mr. Marlow, that old, crazy woman who always danced to her songs and lifted her skirt too high. There was Abby, Harley, and that stupid damned bike that got her into this mess.

Then it was silent, except for the constant ringing in her ears. She coughed as smoke rose towards her. She wanted to believe that there were some survivors, but she had learned enough in her young years to see that wasn't true. The entire camp and land a half miles' radius around it was reduced to a smoldering crater. She also knew that she could soon die, too, if she stayed around the toxic air.

So, with tears once again burning her eyes, along with smoke, she ran and refused to look back.

_Author's note: Harley isn't Hambo. Just wanted to mention that!_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 Girl in the War**

_Author's note: The beginning of this chapter is not owned by me, but is a scene from the 4__th__ issue of the Adventure Time comic (where Marceline looks quite human and that sparked the idea for this entire story). Also, each of these chapters is named after a song that goes either with the chapter or the story as a whole. I do not own any of these songs and give full rights to the artists of the songs and of Adventure Time._

Marceline quickly lost track of how many months she travelled along the most desolate parts of the land, finding places to hide and scavenge for food. Her gift for survival and stealth was exceptional, especially with how the world was changing around her. She saw mutants and creatures that came from the war that no other human had ever laid eyes on, but luckily she was clever enough for them never to see they her.

She had to keep moving, because all of the best homes she found eventually got moved into by some creature bigger, stronger, and stranger than her; there was the spiders the size of cars, the people made of fruit, the wolves wearing science lab coats, and many other things that were hard for her to describe in her current vocabulary. At one point she had been walking for days and sleeping on guard inside of the dying frames of trees, unable to find a place that felt safe enough. Her feet and tummy ached, but she kept walking.

"Hey, girly, in here!" hissed a small whisper. She looked down and there was only a snail, motioning to an almost completely obscured hole.

"Are you kidding? I can't fit in there!" She did not question when snails started talking. She had seen much stranger things in her travels.

The slimy thing only winked, pointed to the hole again, and retreated into its' shell. She just shrugged, moved the brush aside, and shimmied into the hole.

After about 15 feet and 2 big turns, she looked down below her feet and saw a tiny glimmer of light. Her eyes widened at the thought that this hole may be bigger than she thought. "Jackpot!"

She wriggled her way down another minute until she slipped and fell only a couple of feet into the edge of a large cave.

"Whoa, check this place out!" she said as she walked and looked around with wonder. In the center of the room was melted candles, a large pentagram on the floor, and a thick, purple velvet bag in the middle of it.

"And it even comes with a cool creepy bag! I could _totally_ stay here until it's safe outside again."

She walked up and picked up the sweet sack, thinking of all the provisions she'd be able to carry in it. The moment her fingers touched it, however, a warm tingling spread from her fingers up to her arm. "Actually, I don't- I don't think I like this." her voice was a little shaky; "It feels weird. It's kind of burning my hand."

She yanked her hand away and cradled it, seeing no marks, but still feeling the burning sensation deep inside her bones beneath her skin. "Maybe I shouldn't be here after all."

She backed away from the bag and turned around to a puddle of water. In her muddied, purple jumper, she knelt by the water and smiled at her reflection. She was the only person she got to see, so it was nice to pretend she was looking at someone else, like a friend she could talk to. She couldn't keep up the smile long, though. A worried expression came over her childish features as she wondered if it was safer to stay in this mysterious cave or venture back outside.

"Marcie, I know the mushroom bombs have…" she could not think of how to describe what was happening, "changed things. Awakened…things. And I know that I've been alone so long that I've started to talk to myself."

She stared into the water for a long minute. She imagined her mother telling her to try and think of the positive, and Mr. Marlow telling her to think on her feet. She saw a single tear drop and ripple into the water, but she wiped the rest away quickly; she had no time for tears anymore.

She made a "tough" face and balled her tiny fist up at her reflection. "But don't be afraid, Marceline! We're tough! We're smart!" Then, with a weaker voice, she said "We'll make it through this, I promise."

She stopped and shuddered. She swore she could hear faint, sinister whispers coming from the direction of the bag. She got up quickly and wiped her hands on her belly. "It's fine. There'll be somewhere else to stay. Somewhere else where we can find…friends." She paused before the last word that felt so strange on her tongue these days. "Besides, it can't stay like this forever, right?"

She asked almost as if she expected an answer, but there never was one. She would just have to answer herself. "Everything is gonna be fine."

She walked towards the light and found the exit of the cave. On the horizon another territory was being bombed, making those dreaded mushroom clouds across the sky. "It'll just take some time."

She exited the cave and skirted around the edge of a large mountain, as far away from the dreaded mushroom clouds as she could be. After travelling half the night, she found a large field with an ancient tree growing in the middle of it, amazingly still very much alive. In the base of it, the massive roots lifted up from under the ground and formed a hole the size of a 4-man tent. Marceline gave a tired smile and crawled in.

"Well, this is almost as cool as that cave. Not as roomy, but there aren't any creepy bags!"

Suddenly a fit of coughs seized her from inside her chest. Once she was sure that was over, she unloaded her small pack and ate a stash of nuts and dried fruit she'd found. She barely had the energy to finish them before she piled some fern and leaves up in a soft pile, unfolded her thin blanket, and collapsed to a long, much needed rest.

XXX

Marceline woke in the morning with her cough much nastier. She sat up to go get some water to boil at the creek down the way, and did not notice that an inordinate amount of her black hair was on her blanket. Over the next two weeks of her stay in her little hideout, her health declined rapidly. The coughing became almost constant, and sometimes she coughed up blood. Her energy went down so low that she barely had the energy to fetch food and water each day. She woke up with a new burn on her skin once every few days that many women at the camp had before who used to live close to sites that got bombed. Her hair grew thin and brittle and her weight began to drop rapidly. Sometimes she saw strange things, and was left unsure if they were hallucinations or just the world getting stranger again.

Still, every day she told herself, however weakly, "Things will get better, Marceline. We will find friends."

XXX

The day Death came into her little camp under the tree, she was feeling especially weak. She watched him waltz in, with a tip of his southwestern hat on his oblong skull of a head.

"Are you coming to be my friend?" she whispered, pulling herself up against the wall.

"Hmmm, no my punitive mortal. I come to take you to the land of the dead."

Marceline struggled to sit up and her eyes grew larger. "So I am dying? No, Marceline we can't be dying! We have worked so hard to stay alive!"

"Umm, are you talking to yourself? That's a little weird."

Marceline glared at the large skeleton man. _He_ was the one who took everyone she loved in one fell swoop. Well, if she was going to die, she might as well summon every last ounce of strength she had to make this creature suffer.

As the entity bent down to pull the small girl into his kingdom, she summoned a surge of adrenaline, shot up, and kicked him in the crotch. He toppled over in the fetal position just before she took his head, and smashed it with a rock.

"Take that, you butthead!" she shouted. She then ran away, giggling with sheer glee at her renewed strength. She was expecting to die right after beating him up, but in outmaneuvering him she seemed to have cheated death.

She was stopped short when she heard a loud ripping sound in the air directly in front of her face. A portal seemed to part the atmosphere, and a bright heat came out of it that cause her to shield her eyes. Suddenly a blue, pointy eared demon popped his head out. The irises of his large eyes were thin, red slits and he had row upon row of horrible razor sharp teeth in his gaping open mouth. A rumbling, guttural sound poured out from him and his teeth gnashed loudly with each intake of breath.

Marceline had never been more terrified in her life, but she had learned in her travels that if she knew something could easily overpower her and outrun her, the best thing she could do was stand up to it.

"Just what do you want, monster man?" she demanded fiercely as she stomped her little foot. "Can't you see I'm walking here?" She impressed herself with how steady and stern she kept her voice.

The creature stopped it's noise suddenly, shut it's awful mouth, and looked at Marceline in a perplexed manner. "I was laughing." He said incredulously.

"And what's so funny about me? Do I have something in my teeth or what? Didn't your mama teach you it was impolite to stare?"

The creature was dumbfounded. Never had he met a mortal who gave him any other reaction besides running away screaming before he sucked up their souls.

"I was laughing, small mortal, because you have smited death right in his smug, ugly face! I've wanted to get him good for centuries, but ever since I've cheated him and became Lord of the Nightoshpere he's been too on guard with me."

"Umm, no offense Mr. demon-man-sir, but how could you not beat him up if a little kid could?" Marcelines' fear of this thing was rapidly declining.

He busted out a booming laugh again and she stepped back a little. He responded to her between fits of giggles "That's just…it! He never expected it…from you! No mortal has ever…summoned the strength to do that right before dying. Now I get to rub in his stupid face…that he got beat up…by a little…mortal…girl!" he was barely able to finish his explanation and hung out of the portal happily.

"Well, glad I could make your day. Can I go now?" Marceline asked.

"Oh, no, little girl. I'm afraid now that you've seen me I'll have to consume your soul." he said casually. His jaws then unhinged and a horrible, ungodly sucking sound started to sucked the essence from Marceline's body.

She had to try to reason with him. She had not defeated death just to get bested by this weirdo. "WAIT! YOU OWE ME!"

The man instantly stopped sucking and glowered at her. "No mortal has EVER uttered those words to me before, much less shouted them at me. Tell me what you mean so I can get on with your soul eating."

"You sound like you were waiting to get back a death a long time, and now I've given you something to hold over his head. I think you owe me a favor in return."

"That doesn't matter. You weren't intentionally doing me a favor."

"Why should that matter?"

The man thought for a moment. This certainly was an unusual mortal. She could be a valuable asset. "How long have you lived out here on your own, girl?"

"I don't remember anymore. Long time." she said curtly.

"And how have you survived?"

"I dunno. I survived looking at your face, didn't I?" she crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out.

His first reaction at her insolence was to rip her to shreds, but part of him liked her too much to do that. "Alright, girl. I will grant you one wish to return my debt, so long as it is in my power."

"End all wars." she said immediately.

"Not in my power. I feed off chaos and it is against my nature to end it."

"Umm, ok. Bring my parents back."

"I can't bring the dead back. Also against my nature."

Marceline growled a little bit under her breath. She had a lot of wishes up her sleeve, though. Surely this guy could grant one of them. "I want to survive." she whispered.

"The radiation poisoning already courses through your blood. By beating up death you only delayed its effect. You'll die from it in a matter of months and this time he will be prepared for your insolent spunk."

"What can you do, then?"

"Hmm." The monster thought deeply and scratched his chin. "I can give you something better than mere survival until the end of your short, brutal, irrelevant mortal life. I can make a new creature that, if you so choose, will be able to live _forever._"

Marcie's eyes widened. She had no concept of forever. "But not as a human?"

"No, I would make you like me." He tried to give a reassuring smile, but it looked simply menacing.

"So, what does being like you mean? I'll get blue skin with pointy teeth and pointy ears?"

"Umm, yeah, more or less." he shrugged. That was really a very small part of it, but he wasn't about to tell her the full implications.

She looked at him skeptically, "What's the catch?"

"Only one. You would need to become my daughter."

She glared and slashed her arm through the air, "No deal! They may be dead, but I already _have_ parents."

"Look, I'm going to level with you, girl-"

"It's Marceline!"

He took a deep breath, "Right. _Marceline._ Not many of my minions know this, but I used to be mortal. I'm sure I had parents, too, but I chose to forget that life. You know why?"

"No."

He leaned in close and whispered, "Because I'm better than that now. I have lived thousands of lives. I am eternal. My mortal life was merely my _infancy."_

"I will never forget them!" Marcie proclaimed.

He stood, a cold look on his gaunt face. He was done entertaining the whims of this foolish child. "Fine, don't take my deal. Choose to die with your dying world."

The portal began to close slowly and Marcie knew deep down that he was right. A sense of desperation came over her. She didn't have to forget her parents, she thought; she just had to never mention anything from her mortal life to him.

"WAIT!" she cried. The closing portal froze and the man wore a victorious smile on his face. "I'll do it. I'll become what you are…_dad."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 New Born**

_Author's note: Glob, I love Muse so much…like, ever since I was 14. The title song to this chapter I felt went really well with Marcie's transformation and with her rocker style. Also, I changed the chapter title song to chapter 2 to "Girl in the War" by Josh Ritter; it is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard about the effects of war, so listen to it if you get the chance._

The moment Marceline agreed to be Mr. Abadeer's daughter, he took a necklace off his neck, drew out his long clawed hand and sank it deep into her chest. A searing pain ripped through her in waves and warm blood began to drip down her feet. He sank his hand deeper until her found her frantically beating heart. His eyebrows rose with excitement as he clutched the fragile child's muscle and sank his claws into it.

His DNA coursed through her body and a cold numbness began to slowly replace where the pain was. Her skin turned an icy blue. The entire chemistry of her body was transformed to be able to regenerate its cells indefinitely and to no longer be as dependent on things such as food or sleep. Of course, little Marceline did not know any of this. All she knew was that she wanted the pain to stop so bad that she wished she had just let death take her.

Although she felt it was hours, the transformation only lasted a few minutes, ending with the last beat of her heart. She fell to the ground, her body and mind in shock from all the changes. Mr. Abadeer barely remembered his transformation, and peered over at her with a confused look.

"Marceline?" he asked with genuine concern. "Are you alright?"

"I feel tired, Dad." she slurred with great effort. Calling him that was not as hard as she thought it would be since she didn't really remember her dad. She might even grow to like it.

Her dad picked her up and cradled her. "I suppose that's understandable. You'll learn soon that as immortals we will not die without sleep, but once we go a month or three without it we begin to lose the ability to function until we get some."

Marceline merely stared up at him under sagging eyelids. He moved the hair out of her eyes and admired her new features. "You are a beautiful little demon."

Even in her exhausted state, Marceline was surprised at his tenderness. "Are you evil, Dad?"

"It's my job to be evil, Marceline. The world needs chaos and evil and suffering. You may understand that after a few hundred years. I'm not working right now, though. I took off the amulet. Just because I have an evil vocation doesn't mean I won't love you like a father should."

Marceline scrunched her face trying to figure out the meaning of his words. "The world needs all this suffering?"

"Well, it's too much for me to explain right now. The world is…off balance right now- severely. Some forces of evil are worse than others. My evil keeps the balance. Others seek to destroy it."

"So- you're good?" asked Marceline innocently.

"Oh gross, don't ever call me that." He stuck out his forked tongue and made a face of disgust.

Marceline was struggling to stay awake and cocked her head as she gazed at him in a befuddled way.

"It's ok, you can go to sleep. I'll take you somewhere we can rest."

She nodded slowly and squeezed her arms across her chest with a sense of longing.

"Umm, what are you doing, Marceline?"

She suddenly looked up self-consciously. "I miss hugging my bear when I sleep. I miss my mom."

Mr. Abadeer wanted to remind her again to forget about her stupid mortal attachments, but now that she was his daughter and she looked so tired he just couldn't quite do it. "Go to sleep, Marceline."

Even though she was scared, feeling weird in her new body, and unsure of where she would wake up, she willingly obliged.

XXX

Marceline slowly began to rise to consciousness, feeling especially warm. Her body also felt stronger than it had in months. Actually, it felt stronger than it ever had. She felt like she could run the distance of 200,000,000 twinkies easily.

She opened her eyes to see the walls of a dank cave filled with torches, the walls made of chalky, blood red looking rock. She heard the sound of a tv and scanned the large room to see a man wearing a fluffly bath robe with blue skin and pointed ears sitting in front of a glowing screen.

She looked down at her own skin only to see that it matched his. She placed her hand over her chest and could not feel the slightest beating. That's when she remembered all the bizarre events before her slumber, and how she got a new father.

"Dad?" she said quietly.

He looked up with a pleasantly surprised smile on his face. "Marceline! You're awake! Did you have a nice nap?"

"Yeah, I feel…great actually. How long was I asleep? Is it daylight already?"

Mr. Abadeer chuckled, "Oh, day and night are surface concerns. It is always night down here. I suppose from surface-time standards you were maybe asleep 3 days?"

"3 days?" Marceline shot up from the shock and then thought about what he said, "Wait, down here? Where are we?"

"Why the Nightoshpere, of course! This is my home, and you're welcome for it to be yours as well."

She looked around. It was a little musty, and she heard some distant wailing, but all in all the room seemed peaceful and comforting. "Huh. It's not as scary as I thought it might be."

"Well, just be glad you're not a mortal soul here!" he leaned in and whispered, "I make them wait in line for weeks and then once they get up there I smite them!" He laughed gleefully like a child who just pulled a wicked prank. "Oh, it's wonderful. You'll love it someday, Marceline."

"Wait, you want _me_ to rule this place someday?" It sounded like the suckiest job in the world. She was feisty, but she hated being truly mean to people, even if the world did need someone to do it to maintain "balance."

"Why, of course! Why do you think I needed a daughter?"

Marceline looked down at the blanket on her and sagged her shoulders. "I thought you wanted me as a daughter because you liked me."

There was a short silence and then she looked up when she felt her dad's clawed hand on her shoulder, "Of course I like you, Marceline. I wouldn't just choose any mortal child as my successor. Honestly, I had already given up the search when I found you. That's how hard it was for me to find someone who I knew could do it."

"Do I have to do it?" she whined.

Mr. Abadeer knew enough about children to know that if he bore down too much then she might rebel. It would not be a concern until she got older anyway, and maybe by then she would understand better. He kneeled down and looked into her black eyes. "Let's not worry about that right now, ok? There are many things I want to teach you and I'm taking some time off work, ok? I got some penguin to fill in for me and he's doing a pretty good job."

"Are we going to go to a father-daughter picnic?" she yelled, bouncing happily. She always heard her mom saying that she loved those as a child, but didn't really know what they were.

"Ummm…" said her dad with a raised eyebrow, "Sure, we'll do one of those eventually. How would you like to visit all the countries in the world first?"

"Sounds awesome, dad!" she said as she hugged him and nestled her head into his chest. He froze until he slowly put his hands on her shoulders.

Having a daughter certainly was a strange thing.

XXX

At first Marceline was encouraged by the fact that she saw no more bombings at all in her travels with her dad. Eventually, though, she figured out that this was only because there were not many humans left to bomb each other. Since her dad could fly at incredible speeds, they were able to explore the whole world in a month, and in that time they came upon only two places that still held humans.

The first incident her dad smelled a remnant of human life as they flew through a snowy sky over what used to be Switzerland. They followed the scent to an underground room where a mad man with a crazy-long white beard ranted incoherently. He was surrounded by several long tubes in the wall, each with a frosted looking body inside.

"The crown- drives me mad- EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT ON! Heheheheheeee! But I have done it! I've saved a piece of humanity! And before I go completely MAD I will awaken them! Then the world will be better!"

"Ugh, let's put you out of your misery." sneered Marcie's dad. "Soul sucking time!" He began to suck everything in around the hairy man, but no soul came.

Mr. Abadeer looked slightly put out. Without taking his eyes off the poor man, he said "Let's go, Marceline."

"What? Why? What's with those tubes, Dad!"

"I said let's go, Marceline!" hissed her dad sternly. She nodded and they ascended into the sky.

Marceline asked question after question, but the only thing he would say on the matter was "His soul was too corrupted for me to even consume. Such a shame, really, it would have been delicious."

The second incident encountering humans was in the middle of the giant crater that used to be America, where the first three bombs all struck at once from different places (yup, they pissed people off that much). People were clever to hide there since no one would think to target such a wasteland any more, but food was scarce and it was only a matter of time before they all died of radiation poisoning. Still, though, little Marcie couldn't help wish there was some way for them to make it through. They reminded her so much of the struggling little camp she had come from, except for the fact that most seemed to be developing scales.

The youngest of this small village had no scales and was a girl who looked about Marcie's age. She was sloped weakly against an old, rusted car half buried in the dirt. Her hair and her body looked far too thin and those familiar looking burns covered her pale, freckled skin. She looked like she used to be beautiful; Marcie could imagine her curly red locks shiny and full and a blush in her once round cheeks. Her blue eyes, however, still danced with a relentless optimism as she looked at the treasure she held, which drew in Marcie's attention even more.

"_Harley?"_ Marceline whispered to herself, as she peeked at the girl from behind a pile of garbage. Upon a closer look she could tell it was not Harley. He was a duplicate made by the same company, but his fade marks and patches were different than Harley's were. She knew it from that, and the fact that she had seen Harley destroyed. Her dad had told her not to approach any mortals unless she intended to consume their souls, but she could not resist trying to talk to this girl.

She walked up slowly and still the girl had not noticed her. "Oh don't worry, Hambo." she whispered with an innocent smile, "Mommy said we will see every one again and be happy after this is all over. Everything will be just fine."

It was disconcerting to Marcie how much the girl reminded her of herself. She cleared her throat and said "Hambo is a nice name."

The girl looked up and instead of meeting Marcie's smile, her eyes widened with fear, "Are you come to take my soul?" she croaked timidly, followed by a few raspy coughs.

Marceline had forgotten her appearance of a demon. She instantly felt guilty for frightening the unfortunate little human. "No, I want to be your friend!" she backed up and put her hands up as a gesture of good will, "What's your name?"

"It's Greta." she whispered shakily.

"Cool, mine's Marceline. You don't have to be afraid of me. I used to be human."

Greta sat up and a genuine smile spread at the sides of her mouth, "Hi Marceline. It's nice to talk to someone besides my Hambo."

"Don't you talk to the other humans here?"

"Most of the humans are already gone." She stayed silent a long moment after that and Marcie knew better than to be the first one to break it. "The ones who are left look really weird and they don't really talk to the normal people like me anymore. They call me weak."

"They are becoming mutated from the mushroom bombs." Marcie explained- one of the things her dad had taught her recently.

"Well, it doesn't matter why they are that way." shrugged the small girl, "I have my memories and my Hambo.

"I used to have a bear just like Hambo." whispered Marceline.

"Did you lose him?" asked the girl with a sympathetic frown.

Marceline did not respond verbally, but Greta knew what happened from the look on her face.

"I am sorry, Marceline." she said.

"It's ok." said Marceline. She thought carefully about what she said next, hoping it was not out of line. She looked around for her dad, hoping he was not watching her. He must still be sucking souls, she thought. "Can I sit with you and Hambo, Greta?"

Fear flashed for a second in Greta's eyes, but her expression quickly softened and grew into a warm smile. She patted the spot next to her as she grinned at her strange new friend. Marceline sat and returned her smile, before reaching out towards Hambo with a questioning look. Greta nodded approvingly. Marcie's smile grew bigger and she petted the bear timidly before resting her head on his fur and closing her eyes. His fur was much softer and thicker than Harley's had been. She then backed up to meet Greta's eyes and leaned on her shoulder, listening to her shallow breath.

"Do you miss being human, Marcie?" she asked casually.

"Yes." said Marcie as she thought carefully, "I'm still me, though. It's actually kind of cool. I can live a really long time and someday I'll be able to fly and all this other wicked-awesome stuff. You should ask my dad if he'll adopt you, too!"

The girl was quiet a long time before she said, "I think I'm going to die as a human. You are very nice, Marcie, but this world is not nice."

Marcie gave a heavy sigh, "It's not very nice, is it Greta?" the two girls were silent for a bit before Marcie continued, "I was excited when my dad asked if I wanted to explore the world, but all it has done is showed me all the stuff that's ending. I'll still be alive in 100 years and I wonder if there will be any life at all then."

"Things won't be the same, but some form of life will grow sooner or later." said the girl. Marcie turned to meet her tranquil gaze. She wondered how this girl seemed so sure about all the things she said. Greta continued, "I don't want to give him up yet, but if you will stay with me until my time comes, then I want you to take care of Hambo for me, ok?"

Marcie looked around nervously for her dad. "I will stay with you." she said resolutely.

The two girls talked for a long time, their arms wrapped around each other and both absentmindedly caressing the worn bear. Marceline knew the girl was dying, but she was happier than she had been in a long time. Maybe Greta was right and she would be happy after she died.

After a while Greta fell asleep as she listened to Marceline's crazy made up stories and songs with a content smile. Marceline then lay on her chest and listened to her delicate breathing. She stroked her arm tenderly and whispered "You will be ok, Greta."

"MARCELINE!" came the sudden roar of her dad, towering over her with a look of disgust.

Marcie jumped up and her eyes widened with fear, "Daddy, I'm sorry! I was just so lonely- I didn't want to disappoint you-"

"Let's go." he said coldly, "It's about time for me to be returning to work anyway."

"No, dad, _please!_ I just want to stay with her until she-"

Before Marcie could finish her sentence he swept her up in his arms and ripped a portal in the air to the Nightosphere.

"NO! LET ME GO!" Marceline screeched, tears beginning to flow freely down her face.

Mr. Abadeer did not even humor her with an answer before he dumped her in his cave at the Nightosphere, put on the amulet, and returned to work.

XXX

Marcie's dad had ordered one of his minions to spy on Marceline to see how she was doing. The reports were not pleasing; she either paced like a prisoner or laid in bed all day singing depressing songs or just staring at the ceiling. He gave a heavy sigh. Raising a daughter was harder than he thought it would be.

He thought of how secure she looked cuddling with that withering little mortal. He strained to see things from her eyes. She was still adjusting. Maybe, to make the transition easier, he would give her a gift to indulge the one mortal weakness she still clung to of needing constant companionship.

Of course, if he was going to give her something like that he would have to present her with a gift to help her embrace her new demon heritage, too.

XXX

Marceline woke up to see her dad, still in his work suit, smiling down at her. "What do you want?" she said flatly.

"I have two gifts for you, daughter." he said in a rather business-like tone.

"Whayever." mumbled Marceline defiantly, looking away from him.

"The first is this amazing axe infused with the demon blood of our ancestors!" he set down the large weapon in the little girl's lap, "Just look at the attention to detail! The vibrancy of the color! The quality of the metal!"

Marceline sighed, "It's pretty awesome. Thanks." She did sincerely like it, but she just didn't feel like it was her. Besides, how could she be excited about a gift from such a jerk?

"Hmmm," he said, a little disappointed she did not meet his enthusiasm "well, I'm sure you'll like it as you grow older."

"Yeah, what else you got?" said Marcie, flopping back down on her bed.

He sighed, not believing he was giving a gift so ridiculous and not anywhere near as righteous as an ancient axe. He held out the present and Marceline's eyes brimmed with happiness.

"Oh, Dad!" she exclaimed, holding her arms out and hugging the bear. "Wait, you didn't steal this, did you?"

"No, I took it from the girl once she was…already done with it."

Marceline appreciated him trying to phrase it in a way to not upset her, but she knew that meant Greta was dead. She sighed, but hoped she was finally happy- the girl who had such a calm certainty about everything she said. "Thank you so much, dad."

"Yes, well, I hope it keeps you company. Just out of curiosity, what was the name of your old bear? You could name this one the same thing."

"His name was _Ha-" _Marceline stopped. _Just say Harley,_ she thought. "His name was Ha-" she looked up into her dad's eyes before strongly declaring "The name was Hambo."

Her dad sighed. "Well, glad you like it. I've gotta go back to work, Marcie." He gave her a quick side hug and left Marcie with her new friend.

Marcie stood there for a long time staring at Hambo, wondering why she could not just rename him just like she had her Harley back. Finally she said to the bear, "Things will never be the same as they were with Harley. Dad would be mad to know that I kept the name a mortal girl gave you, but that will be our little secret, ok, Hambo?"

The bear stared at her, one of it's eye beads dangling precariously.

"You are different than Harley, anyway. You are a gift from Greta and from my dad. You mean that my new dad really does love me."

She hugged the bear tightly and whispered, "I will take good care of him, Greta."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 The Times They are a Changin'**

_Author's note: this is a disclaimer to state that this story is going to have a lot of time lapses. I wanted to get a picture for the most important events in Marceline's history, but I do not intend this to be an incredibly long story and she's over a 1000 years old…so, time lapses are kind of essential, right?_

_200 years after Marceline's transformation_

Marceline's hands shook with excitement as she made the last adjustment on the record player she was repairing for the second time. She had the good luck after much digging to find the remains of a completely intact structure of a vintage record store that had been buried under a mountain of dust. It was better to her than a treasure chest filled with an entire kingdom's riches. It took her forever to fix the record player the first time and she kept it in pristine condition.

Her dad had given her the ultimatum after she was 121 years old that she could either work part time in the Nightoshpere or get her own place.

After working the Nightosphere for a day, she chose the latter option.

So, the record store had become her home. She carved a gigantic "M" in the door to mark it as hers; that way any mutated little freaks who tried to squat there on her outings couldn't say they weren't warned. The records were all neatly shelved along the walls which she had painted a deep purple. Posters of classic rockers from the 1960's and 70's (an era of music before even her grandmother's time, but one of her favorite ones) covered the ceiling. She often stared up at them from her gigantic beanbag as she listened to the idealistic music of a world ravaged with war when people still had so much hope. An eclectic collection of end tables had giant, drippy, multi-colored pillar candles, most of which she had made (immortals have a lot of time on their hands and the solar electricity she'd hooked up was only reliable half the time).

In the attic she had her bedroom, which looked pretty much like an artistic teenage girl's bedroom should. She had door beads and photographs she'd taken of her journeys cluttered around the edge of her vanity mirror. On her desk were a collection of sketch books, and an unorganized mess of baubles and trinkets she salvaged on her outings for her tinkering but hadn't organized in her workshop yet. On her black lace canopy bed were a plush, dark blue velvet comforter and the still intact Hambo resting on the pillow. Across from the bed there was a large fireplace that lit the entire room, above which hung the axe her dad had given to her. It had actually come in quite handy over the years, for collecting firewood and slaying the occasional evil gigantic bugs and humanoid mutants that would come by.

One of her prized possessions was her wardrobe closet she scored on an especially good dig, with all the sweet clothes she had collected. Long past were the days of that kiddish purple jumper she outgrew. She now sported ancient black band t-shirts, cut off shorts, chuck sneakers, and an assortment of quirky fingerless gloves, belts, boots, and scarves. Her hair was down to about her mid back and had grown much healthier since her days as a malnourished human, reflecting the light in a shimmering blue-tinted black.

Since she moved out, Mr. Abadeer probably visited her once every 5 to 10 years. When he did come, it was usually for a few months, which left Marceline exhausted. Marceline didn't understand how he could be her dad, but devote so little time to her when she was still a child.

She brought up this concern only once, but all he said was "Oh, Marceline, you are still thinking by mortal standards. You may still be a child, but you're invincible! You don't need me always hovering around to protect you. Besides, you know how work is."

"Yes, Dad, I know how work is." she said flatly.

We'd see each other more if you'd come back and work with me." He nudged her hopefully.

She sighed. "No thanks, Dad." She never asked again because she knew him well enough to know that he would always twist the conversation back to that.

Aside from the pressure on how to live her life, his visits were also exhausting simply because he was so self absorbed. The entire time he only wanted them to do and talk about what he was interested in. She almost felt like she had to hide who she was around him, because if she ever told him about her newest band she was into or thing she had built he either got a glazed over look before changing the subject, or said something patronizing in a pathetic attempt to be supportive.

Despite how exhausting and annoying his visits could be, Marceline craved them at that time in her life. There was still life on the earth, but friendly sentient life was not common. Marceline did notice in her search for life, though, that the effects of the Mushroom war seemed to be making things evolve and mutate at a rapid rate. She wasn't really the science-y type, but it still seemed fast to her. The plants growing back since the war all seemed even more alive than they ever were before; plush, soft, and neon colored, some with faces that could talk. The clouds, too, seemed to be developing into people. One time Marcie even found her way through a portal to a crystal dimension where a bunch of dogs and weird horses made of rainbows were killing each other. She saw pieces of small candy, like gum drops and peppermints, hopping around sometimes with large eyes and tiny squeaking noises. They usually meant that Candy-cave-men were close by. They came after her with torches if she got close to them, and she really didn't like to have to kill them. Then of course there were mutants that seemed to know English, but did not really seem sentient any more. An example was the race of old ladies. They knew choice phrases and words, but they had no childhood, and no relationships. They were born old, they went around saying old lady stuff like robots, and then they performed mitosis to make a different old lady and died.

Most of the creatures she knew were like her- in a perpetual stage in between life and death. She had met her share of ghosts, zombies, and vampires. They were fun to chill with from time to time. The ghosts she especially liked because they always sought thrills and taught her a whole bunch of awesome extreme undead sports. For the most part, though, they excluded her since she was so young.

So, Marceline learned to revel in solitude- with her creativity and Hambo to keep her company, of course.

On this special night, just after dusk, Marceline wanted nothing more than to pop one of her Hendrix records in and work on a new amplifier. She didn't have time for any of that, though. This was one of the nights her dad was visiting- for the first time in 6 years- and she fussed over getting everything ready.

"Ok," she muttered to herself, looking around her home, "I put away all the records that _didn't_ look demonic. I stocked the fridge with food so he doesn't think I'm 'struggling' on my own." She stopped to roll her eyes- not that he would help her if she was struggling. "I cleaned the kitchen, the bathrooms…wait, did I clean me?" She stopped to smell her pit and recoiled. "Ugh! Grody!"

Marcie hopped in the tub and soaked for a few minutes in the soapy water. She took a minute to look at her body in the water. It was…different than it was a few centuries ago. There wasn't really a woman around to explain it to her, either, so she just kind of had to wing it. The things she did learn were from all the old books she found. She wouldn't tell anyone that she went through phases where she loved to read because bookworms were big nerds, but where else was she supposed to learn the stuff her dad wouldn't teach her?

Aside from the embarrassing nuances of puberty, she would read the occasional romance novel- it was rare that she could stomach them. Still, she found it amazing how love or lust or whatever they wanted to call it affected people. She thought she'd never be that stupid, but what did she know? Maybe if there was actually someone who existed her age she'd get to feel all giddy and stupid and hearbroken. She was 200 years old; she felt like she should at least have had a first date!

She shook her head and stuck her tongue out. "Gross! I'm better off alone!"

She climbed out of the bath and pulled on her favorite pair of cut off shorts and a plain black shirt. She walked out of the bathroom to see her dad standing there, helping himself to 5 hotdogs at once.

Marceline rolled her eyes. "You know, Dad, I'm not a little girl any more. You're going to have to knock when you come over."

He merely gave a cheerful but patronizing chuckle. "Oh, Marcie, I know. You're a big girl!" He ruffled her hair, and she smacked away his hand before walking to the fridge for a drink. "And this little place you've got is still so _cute!"_

"It's not cute, Dad, it's awesome! Get your adjectat-age right!"

He laughed before downing a whole 2 liter of soda in a manner of second. After a hearty belch he said, "Well, that was a good appetizer for some soul sucking! You ready to go?"

"Ugh, we _always_ suck souls, dad!" she stomped her foot like a petulant child, "Can't we do something else?"

"Oh, come on, Marcie. It'll be fun! It's not like there's anything to do here." he said, looking around with a bored expression.

Marceline would love to disagree. There was plenty of stuff to do there, considering she had about 400 hours worth of original songs she wrote that he'd never heard. She didn't really know if she was ready for his criticisms on those, though, so instead she thought of trying something she'd never done before. "Dad, I'll make you a deal."

"What is it, Marcie?"

"Well, I hunt hot dogs in the hot dog pack, I get bread from the bread fields, I get meat from meat men, and pizza from the mountain made of pizza. There's one food that I really miss, though."

"Hmm? I'm listening."

"Burgers and french fries. Before Mom and I had to go to the camp, that was my favorite food to get with her and my dad. It was one of the only memories I have with him."

Mr. Abadeer suddenly looked angry, just as she hoped he would. "Marceline! How dare you still bring up those silly mortal-"

"Wait, daddy, let me finish. Burgers and fries don't even grow around here and I just want them SO BAD!" she clawed the air for dramatic effect, "I still remember the warm, oily saltiness, the sweet tang of the ketchup, and that rad seed-speckled bun! I want to remember eating french fries with _you_, though. _You've_ been my dad for centuries longer than he was, so I want to be able to remember those good memories with _you."_

A grin suddenly spread on Mr. Abadeer's face. Marcie chuckled inwardly; she wondered if the way to get all men to do what she wanted was to stroke their ego. "Yes, good point, Marceline. I think we'll have time to do that tonight. So, our deal is burgers and fries tonight, and soul sucking tomorrow?"

"Right."

"Well, I did see a little ghost-run diner on my way in. Let's go there."

"Sweet!"

Arm in arm, the father and daughter flew off. She was so proud of herself for finally getting him to do an activity she wanted to do. She was also genuinely excited about the fries. They were her favorite food ever and she hadn't had them in centuries.

Minutes later they reached the ruins of a 1950-s style diner. A fat, surly, pockmarked ghost who looked like he died as a drop out college student floated behind the counter. "Hello, it's your lucky day. I'm having my going out of business sale." He drawled in a bored voice.

"Out of business? Why?" she whined.

"Well, ya see I started this cuz I totally need to save up money for my own garage band. Then my stupid mom was all like 'you need to get a job, blah! Cuz I'm not made of money, blah!'"

"Get to the point, ruffian." my dad hissed.

"Right well," said the ghost, his voice slightly raising in pitch as he backed up, "I started this diner, but that was kind of a bad business move because the only ones who live around here are ghosts and they don't eat."

"Wow. Well, son, that's extremely stupid." said Marcie's dad bluntly. Marcie tried to stifle giggles at the embarrassed look on the guy's face. Surely he'd be blushing like a tomato if he had any blood in him.

"Yeah, well, it sounded smarter in my head." he mumbled, "Anyways, do you dudes wanna hear what we have or not?"

"Yeah, spit it out!" said Marcie. She was hungry and she didn't like his tone.

"Ok, we have some stuff for shakes, and we have one order of fries, and one burger."

"So, not enough for 2 of us?" said Marcie.

"Nah, dudette."

"Why are you even staying in business if all you have to sell are shakes and enough for one meal?"

"Look, chick, if you want me to close down early, I will." he threatened.

"No, no!" exclaimed Marcie hastily, as she pulled out some ghost money. "Here, I'll have the fries and a shake. Dad, you're cool with having the burger, right?"

"Yeah, sure." shrugged her dad, "I've always preferred onion rings, anyway."

After the two demons got their food, the ghost put up the closed sign and flew away.

"Ugh, I am SO stoked to try these!" said Marcie as they sat in their booth. Her dad ingested the burger before she'd even finished the first sip of her shake. She bit down on the first fry, expecting the warm saltiness she remembered, but quickly made a face. "Ugh, no wonder the ghosts don't eat- they can't cook! Oh well, nothing a little more salt won't fix! I'm going to go find some, ok Dad?"

"Sure, honey!" he said after the last sip of her shake.

The salt only took a few seconds for her to find, but apparently her dad thought it would take her longer. He had meant to sneak just one little fry, but he kind of had an addiction with over eating something once he got started (it probably helped him repress all those mortal memories so well). When his daughter returned, his face was buried in her half eaten container of fries.

"Marceline!" he sputtered, through a mouthful of puffed up potato.

Marcie sniffled, near the point of tears. "Daddy, why?"

"I can explain, honey, I…I, umm…" he impulsively tossed the rest of the fries in his mouth; unfortunately he also overate when he was nervous.

"Dad, what the flip-flop?" screeched Marceline hurling the salt shaker to the floor.

"Well, you see-"

"Forget it, Dad!" she said as her voice cracked, "Go suck souls by yourself! The deal's off! In fact, don't ever waste your precious business time visiting me again!"

"Marceline, wait!"

The adolescent demon crashed through the ceiling of the diner and flew away as fast as she could. She knew he could catch up with her if he wanted to, though. The fact that he didn't chase after her just sealed all her repressed theories about him as fact in her mind. She wiped tears from her eyes as she went over them in her head: _He doesn't care that I waited centuries to have fries again. He hates anything that makes me think about my awesome parents. He just made me his daughter to have someone young and trainable to do his bidding. He doesn't care about anything that interests me! What's the nicest thing he's done for me ever? Give me Hambo? Even that was tainted by him not letting me stay with Greta until…_

Marceline let out a deafening demon screech of frustration. She was done stifling who she was to appease her dad. She was going to play other people her music, even if he didn't understand it. She was going to find her own way to success that had nothing to do with the Nightoshere.

Once she got home she busted the door open so hard that it fell of it's hinges with a clatter as she ran up to her room. Above her fire place, she eyed that red battle axe deviously. He gave it to her so that she could embrace the version of Marceline that he wanted her to be, but she was done trying to be that girl.

She took the weapon off the wall and down into the office of her record store, which she had converted into a work shop for her most ornate projects. She looked around at all the supplies she had gathered over the years- guitar strings, knobs, pickups, machine heads…she would make this awesome axe represent Marceline- the version _she_ wanted to be.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Apocalypse Please**

_Author's note: I do not own the lyrics in this chapter from the title song._

It was 300 years after the "fry incident." Marceline, the rebellious demon princess, was getting ready for what had become a typical Friday night. She teased her grungy black hair, which had almost grown to her knees. She donned a pair of black skinny jeans, her red boots, and a silky red spaghetti strap shirt with lace around the trim (it was almost bordering too feminine for her, but she liked that it was subtle). She flew in front of the mirror admiring her long, willowy body in the form fitting outfit. She had shot up several inches the last few centuries, and in human terms looked like a very tall 16-year-old girl. Finally, she grabbed her guitar pick and slung her axe over her shoulder with the skull covered strap attached to it.

The axe looked considerably different since she had altered it 300 years prior. It gleamed with shiny knobs and four superb strings; she had transformed the weapon to have another purpose as a bass guitar. It was her most beautiful creation ever and she smiled when she greeted it in the morning. Just as she viewed music as more essential than kitchen utensils as a child, she viewed it as even more important that kick-butt weapons as a teen.

She gave Hambo a squeeze- not that she would ever tell her dad she still treasured the bear so much- and flew out the window to her next gig.

Little did she know that someone was watching her as she went. He grinned in the darkness as she flew away, lust and hunger practically dripping from his wet fangs. He could not help but admire that tight and very _red_ top she wore that night. In fact, that outfit was what convinced him to finally make his appearance.

He had been watching her for quite a long time, waiting to be sure she was the one he wanted to take.

XXX

Marcie stood before the cheering crowd as the last chord she strummed resonated throughout the hillside. A sea of nut people, rock people, vampires, ghosts, and other assorted monsters and mutants flocked to hear her music at every concert she held. Her band, among them the college-drop-out-ghost she'd met in the diner so many years ago, gave her full freedom in the song writing, which was a pretty good arrangement for her.

"Ok, guys, I'm going to sing you a little song about my child hood." she whispered in that signature sultry voice she had developed, "You think you're down for that?"

The crowd's eruption answered her question.

"Alright, here it goes. It's about a little something people used to call the apocalypse. They thought it was the end of everything." Marceline gave a pause. The crowd assumed it was for dramatic emphasis, but it was really just so she could keep herself composed inside. The song was more personal than any of them would realize; it was a plea she used to have that was never answered. Finally she added "Little did they know it was just the end of them."

The piano came in deep and pounding, followed by a crash from the drums, and then Marcie's passionate voice and guitar strums flowed over the crowd.

"Declare this an emergency  
come on and spread a sense of urgency  
and pull us through  
and pull us through  
and this is the end  
this is the end of the world."

Marcie took a deep breath and wiped the sweat from her face during college-drop-out-ghost's guitar solo. Just as she leaned into the microphone again to moan out some sweet harmony, she noticed a pair of red eyes locked on her in the crowd. They stood out because they watched her with a sense of purpose; glowed in crimson between the slits of a narrow glare. She sang the next verse, glaring right back at that pair of eyes, never wavering from her.

"It's time we saw a miracle  
come on it's time for something biblical  
to pull us through  
and pull us through  
and this is the end  
this is the end of the world."

The set of eyes had worked their way closer to her through the crowd and now stood right in front of the stage. The angular face of a powerful looking vampire stared at her with a superior crooked grin on his face. Marceline wanted to get right up in his face and scream at him to stop creeping her out, but she wouldn't let him know he had that kind of power over her. Instead she refused to look at him for the rest of the song, fixing her eyes on her drummer ghost, Abel (he looked quite embarrassed at this new attention). She sang the last verse with more resoluteness and intensity than all the others.

"Proclaim eternal victory  
come on and change the course of history  
and pull us through  
and pull us through  
and this is the end  
this is the end of the world."

The harmonies of the other band members led the song to a powerful finish as the sound melted into cheers from the crowd. Marceline did not look, but she knew the vampire was still there. She spun around and jerked her head subtly to her band mates that she wanted them to meet her back stage.

Marceline floated behind the stage where the band's stuff was and shoved her things hastily into a messenger bag. She had a weird feeling etching it's way through her stomach and her hands shook a little bit. She had the instinct to fly away as quickly as possible, but she also had the urge to peek out and see if the vampire was still staring in her direction. A flutter of excitement shivered through her before she shook her head angrily, wondering what the junk was going on in her head.

"May I say that color looks _stunning_ on you, Miss Marceline?" a captivatingly deep voice hushed by her ear.

Marcie jumped onto the ceiling with a hiss, staring the vampire straight in his licentious gaze. A blush started to creep into her cheeks.

"Why so jumpy?" shrugged the man in a playful, slightly patronizing tone. "I merely wanted to meet one of my favorite musicians."

Marceline merely glared, debating on whether or not to say anything. "I've never noticed you at the shows before."

"Oh, Marceline. I only get noticed if I want to be noticed." he said with a haughty chuckle, "I would think from your agitated position on the ceiling, that I have succeeded in getting you to notice me."

"Why are you here?" Marceline asked bluntly.

"Ah, so you prefer to get straight to the point instead of playful banter?" he asked floating up next to her and cocking his head with a smile.

Marceline resisted the urge to shrink away from him. He was wrong- she loved playful banter with people she _liked._ There was no way she could like him; the vampire who just reeked of "arrogant jerk" aroma. She could not help but stare at him, in that tattered suit with coat tails like he was turned to his current state centuries before she was even born. His black hair fell to his ears in a wavy shag, a few locks falling messily into his eyes. His skin was such a pale shade of grey that it almost glowed, except for the dark bite-mark scars on his neck every vampire had. His eyes glowed with intensity and he bit his lip a little bit with a white, wet fang.

When Marceline did not answer, the man continued, "Fine, fine, have it your way." he shrugged, "I'd like to ask you on a date."

"No." she said flatly.

"Oh, ouch!" he hissed, with a much exaggerated frown, "You could have at least pretended to hesitate to spare my tender feelings!"

"What do I care for your feelings?" Marceline exploded, "All you've done so far is creep me out and invade my personal space!" She floated down to the ground to grab her stuff and he followed.

"Well," he said, holding his finger up with an enticing smirk, "before you make your final decision, I'd like you to hear my proposal."

Marceline spat at the ground by his feet, snapped "Bite me!" and began to march away.

"Actually, that pretty much is my proposal."

Marceline stopped in confusion before turning around, curiosity winning over her urge to go home. "What are you fomping talking about?" she sighed in an exasperated voice.

"My proposal is that I bite you."

Marceline stared at him blankly.

"I've paid attention to every lyric you've ever uttered in concert, Marceline Abadeer. You sing a lot about your past, but not much about your present. Why is that?"

"How do you know my last name?" she said quietly.

"I know a lot of things. Please answer my question, fair demon queen."

"Why don't I write about my present? Why don't you guess if you know so much?" she challenged.

"You've cut off the connections with your father, losing the purpose he created you for. You don't have anyone to relate to. All you used to love besides him died several human lives ago. In short, you are lost. You have no purpose."

Marceline breathed heavily before slapping the man across the face with all her might. The clapping sound echoed and left and she thought she saw his face taking shape of some sort of monster for a split second as he clutched his face. After a second he regained himself and said, "I like your spunk, princess. That will come in handy when I give you purpose."

"So your proposal is to bite me? Don't you know I'm already immortal, idiot? I can't be turned immortal _again_ into a vampire."

"Correction: you can, but only by me."

Marceline crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. He seemed to think he was really special, "Oh yeah, and why's that?"

The man slowly got down on his knees and gently took her arm. He ran his fingers lightly up and down her arm as he gazed up at her. She locked her stare with his, unable to look away. After several seconds, he kissed her hand lightly and said "I can make things happen that no other vampire can, Marceline. I am Romulus Night, the Vampire King. If you want, I can give you a new legacy, purpose, and freedom like you've never known.

"I can make you my queen."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Marry the Night**

The last moment Marceline's hot demon blood coursed through her body lasted longer than she thought it would. The moment she muttered a tentative "yes" to the Vampire King's proposal, he clutched her back tightly, yanked her breasts against him, and sank his icy fangs through her tough, blue neck skin. She had heard becoming a vampire was painful, and she figured maybe she'd be immune to that already being immortal.

She was very wrong. A searing pain coursed through her that she had never known, even in her human life. Every part of her grew so cold it felt like she was burning, all pulsating from those two little marks on her neck. She could not remember if she screamed, but inside her head the noise was deafening. She struggled to hold on to the memory of why she had agreed to this.

Reason number one, honestly, was to just have someone to fit in with. Romulus sat her down and his eyes lit up with excitement as he described the traits of vampire society.

The first was that vampires defended their own.

However, the second was that vampires didn't bother their own. Except for packs of two to three, most of them were loners the majority of the time.

The third was that it was their job to inspire fear into the hearts of the living. This was to ensure their reign of the dead that never went to the Nightosphere, Glob World, or the Land of the Dead. This rule was where Marceline grew kind of weary.

"Oh my grosh, dude!" she stuck her forked tongue out in disgust and backed up. "You sound like my dad! He's always trying to get me to freakin' torture souls!"

Romulus cocked his head and looked at her innocently. "Well, it won't be hard for you to scare people. All you have to do is put on a little show. Being a vampire is just about keeping reputation. You don't have to actually torture people if that's not your thing."

"Oh really?" Marceline spat skeptically while crossing her arms "Then how do you eat? Don't you drink the blood of mortals or some junk?"

"Hmm, yes that's an option…" Romulus said slowly, tapping his chin. He chose his words carefully, "but it's far from necessary. All you really need for food is the color red."

"You drink colors?" said Marceline flatly while rolling her eyes, "So, do gay vampires drink pink or something?"

"Actually I've always wanted to try a delicate shade of pink." said Romulus with a distant smile.

Marceline raised one eyebrow and began to slowly pick up her bag, "Right, anyways, I had better be going-"

"Wait!" Romulus cried, a faint hiss in the back of his throat and his fangs bared, "I can tell you're skeptical, so let me show you." By the time Marceline met his gaze it had calmed, and she felt her heart thump nervously in her chest.

"Ok." she whispered.

A faint, sweet smile parted Romulus's lips as he mouthed "Thank you." He approached her gently, but with a certain kind of urgency. Suddenly Marceline did not mind him being so close. In fact, she was confused to realize that she wanted him closer. His otherworldly, clean smelling musk clouded her thoughts and she resisted every impulse to wrap her arms around him. She was so taken aback by the effect he had on her that she thought at first it must be some kind of sorcery. Then she reviewed all the symptoms of infatuation she had educated herself about and suddenly realized that she had herself a crush.

Marcie shivered as his lips gently brushed her cheek before he lowered his head slowly to her shirt. Suddenly Marcie remembered that she had just met him and that her first impression screamed that he was a creep. She began to pull away, furious that he would try second base before they even had a date. However, before she could deck the creep in the face, his mouth hovered above her chest and he inhaled deeply. She watched as his cheeks began to flush a bright red while all the color began to drain from her silk shirt until it was a charcoal shade of grey. When he was done she stared at him with a newfound fascination. He looked up at her through his thick eyelashes, his mouth still hovering above her breasts.

They were both quiet for a long moment before Romulus stood up quickly, licking his lips with a satisfied grin. "Ah, that was a refreshing, lively shade of red!" he sighed.

Marceline wanted to fit in with someone. She wanted to stick it to her dad. She thought having more powers sounded cool. She wanted a purpose besides just making music and being the predestined ruler to the Nightosphere. Scaring peeps wouldn't be so bad. She already loved pranking people, and she had a naturally scary appearance, so what more was there to it? She rationalized all of these thoughts very quickly in her head, trying to avoid the most persistent thought that coursed through her hormonal teenage mind; she wanted to date this vampire and she had a feeling he wouldn't unless she became a vampire, too.

"So, what do you say?" he asked, suddenly running his long-nailed fingers through her ebony hair.

"I never have to kill anyone?" she confirmed, "Just scare them?"

"That is right, mi princessa."

That is when she muttered the agreement, and that is what got her to where she was now. That is what caused this sexy lunatic to latch onto her neck and make her thrash around in pain. She felt herself get so cold that she thought he was just going to drain her dry and kill her. Could he do that- just kill her by draining her blood even though she was a demon? She wasn't sure.

Suddenly, the pain stopped, replaced only by a tingling numbness and a dull throbbing from her neck. She opened her eyes to see herself in a large, black velvet bed. Floating above her was Romulus's handsome form, sound asleep. She wanted to wake him up, but she found she could hardly move. Finally she managed one weak moan. He sat up immediately and grinned.

"Hello, my Queen." he said tenderly, his voice deep and coursing and smooth.

Marceline, feeling a little bit delirious, reached out and ran her fingers weakly though his hair. Then, with no real control over what she was doing, pulled him towards her and began to gnaw absentmindedly on his neck.

"Awww," cooed Romulus as he pulled away to look at her, "just look at those adorable killer instincts! You can't suck any blood from me, silly!"

She moaned and flicked her tongue at him. The thirst was unbearable and he seemed to just be taunting her.

"Here, little vamp noobie, take this." he said, reaching behind him and handing her a bowl of strawberries. Marcie took one, sank her teeth into it, and inhaled a deliciously sweet shade of red.

Before she knew it she was sitting up, her eyes wide with energy, and the shriveled grey corpses of strawberries surrounded her.

Romulus was suddenly inches from her face, his arms on either side of her. He studied her new grey skin and red eyes intensely. She froze in place, not quite sure what to do with herself. Finally, Romulus whispered, "Marceline, I did not think it was possible for you to be more stunning as a vampire, but I have been proven wrong."

Then his lips were on hers and she arched her body to meet his.

They made out a few minutes, before the king pulled himself away, insisting that she would need more rest before she was to full strength. He exited the room quickly and Marceline settled restlessly back into bed. She wasn't even that tired, but her face beamed with happiness that he cared so much for her wellbeing.

She only got a little more sleep before she was completely awake. She saw her axe bass leaned against the wall of Romulus's room and began to strum up some new jams about her new beau. She was so giddy that she resolved to surprise him with a big kiss the moment he came back to check on her.

Just at that moment he flew in and looked like he was going to go right past her until she stopped him and kissed him passionately. Instead of reciprocating, though, he pushed her back with so much force she spun through the air a little bit. Before even asking if she was ok he rushed into the bathroom and started the shower.

Marceline was about to flip out at him for the uncharacteristic rejection, but suddenly she stopped, studying the taste that the kiss left in her mouth.

Sticky, metallic, and salty- it was unmistakably the taste of mortal blood.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Love Interruption**

_Author's note: 200 years after meeting Romulus. Marceline is now 700 years old._

Marceline looked at her pale face reflected in Hambo's precariously remaining eyeball.

"We can do it, Marceline. We are tough. We are strong." she whispered weakly, remembering how she used to talk to herself this way to keep her bravery up as a human.

Even though she was now centuries older, and had a fanged appearance that would frighten anyone upon first impression, she had never felt less brave.

She had confronted Romulus a long time ago about the fact that he drank mortal blood, most often to the point of killing them. She even tried physically stopping him from going out to drink, but he beat her until she could barely see straight. She was still such a young vampire, and he was the king. As strong as she was, he was always stronger.

She couldn't stand being stuck at his lair, wondering when he would come stumbling in reeking of stale blood. One dawn he came back so intoxicated that she figured she could just leave without him even noticing. She made it only a few miles before he found her, struck her across the face, and said if she ever tried to leave again he would send his entire kingdom of vampires to kill her.

She knew he was awful, yet she just couldn't muster the courage to fight him and leave. She still played concerts, but he was at every single one, being sure she spoke to no man and that he did not hear a single lyric criticizing him. She had never felt like such a coward, but even though she was essentially a prisoner, she felt she would lose everything if she left. She had no one else, and she always reminded herself of the moments of incredible love and good that resided in him.

One example of the few good things about Romulus was when they made love. The first time she felt him move inside of her and whisper tenderly in her ear, she convinced herself that he loved her deep down, and that immortality had just hardened him too much to show it well. Of course, sex was also the undoing of any constructive conversation. Whenever Marcie was brave enough to bring up any problem she had with their relationship, it ended with them fighting, and then kissing, and hours later floating naked and relaxed above the bed with nothing really resolved at all.

Any time they spent around each other when he was sober seemed so dreamlike and perfect. He was charming, playful and witty. He was poetic, romantic, and spontaneous. He travelled the world with her showing her the ins and outs of being vampire royalty and telling her captivating tales of his thousands of years of existence. All condescending remarks, physical abuse, and insane possessiveness vanished.

She held on to those memories, hoping that some day she could make him see all the ways his choice to drink blood hurt her. Maybe then she could have the good version of him all the time.

One night she left a concert with sloped shoulders, feeling like she had failed her fans. It had been a decade since she had written any new things, but her creativity was completely stifled with Romulus always glaring at her from below the stage, fresh blood brightly coating his lips.

She could feel his leering eyes on her, but he gave her some time to say hello to people after the show- as long as none of them were attractive males. As Marceline greeted people and showed a few ghosts the detail to her bass, she heard a small "Oomph!" from a young teenage girl that had run into her.

"Oh, I'm very sorry!" exclaimed the girl in a sing-song, dainty voice.

"Yeah, it's cool." said Marcie waving her hand without even turning around to look at the girl, "So anyways, I scrounged theses base strings from the ruins of a-"

"Umm, Marceline?" piped up the voice of the girl again.

Marceline continued to talk, hoping the kid would just go away.

"Marceline, I'm sorry to interrupt, I just wanted to-"

Finally Marcie held her hand up to dismiss the ghost and spun around impatiently. She was about to say something snarky, but her jaw dropped in surprise at who she saw.

The girl wore white shorts, purple ballet flats, and an adorable fitted tee with Rainicorns all over it. She wore big, thick rimmed, black glasses. What was most shocking was that her skin and mid-back-length hair were a bright, sickening shade of Pepto-Bismol pink. Marcie squinted her eyes at the sudden assault of color.

"You don't look like the peeps that normally show at my concerts. Are you lost?" said Marcie finally.

The girl giggled sweetly, "No, silly! One day I was looking for some mathematician worms for my experiments when my peppermint friend told me there was going to be a real life rock concert near there. Well, he told me before that I didn't 'get out enough,' so I decided to come and show him!"

"Wow, well, good job. You came." said Marceline sarcastically. She began to walk away when she felt the girl grab her arm. Marcie stopped suddenly, not being able to help but notice how soft the girl's hands were.

"Wait, I'm sorry! I should have just gotten straight to the point." cried the girl.

"Yeah, what's that?"

"I thought that I would leave my first concert with a headache and not being able to think straight, but your songs actually made me think a lot clearer. They're so beautiful and real. I've bought all your albums and came to every show since then. I just wanted to tell you that. I'm just so grateful for your totally math jams and can't wait to hear your new stuff!"

"Well, thanks a lot, kid." Marceline's posture softened and she gave the girl a genuine smile. "I actually haven't written any stuff in a long time, though."

"Well, I know you probably have fans asking you this all the time, but if you'd ever want to grab some glub glub juice and bounce some ideas off me, I'd be honored."

Marceline's eyes widened in surprise, "Actually, no, I've never had any one offer to do that with me. Everyone is too scared of me to ask stuff like that and the ones who aren't don't care that much about my music."

"Oh dear!" said the girl, her blue eyes widening and her lower lip jutting out adorably, "Is that a yes, then?"

Marceline froze. Would Romulus let her? She stood debating it for a second in her head. Finally she decided that he would probably be fine with it since she was a girl. "Yeah, that sounds…" what was the right word…amazing, fun, exciting? Marceline suddenly realized that the last girl she'd formed any connection with was Greta, and that was only for a few hours.

"Umm, that sounds...?" prompted the pink girl hopefully.

"Cool." shrugged Marcie with a nonchalant shrug, totally trying to make up for the fact that she had just trailed off like a dork. "So what's your name, anyway?"

"Bonnibel Bubblegum!" she chirped, thrusting out her hand for Marcie to shake. She then pulled a fuzzy pink pen out of her messenger bag and scrawled some stuff on her hand. "Here's my address. Tomorrow at sundown?"

Marceline suddenly felt self conscious as Bonnibel clutched on her hand, and she could feel the red she'd sucked for dinner earlier creeping up into her cheeks as a blush. She was not sure why she was so excited to hang out with this ridiculous looking girl, but she supposed it had been a long while since she'd made a real friend, and that was probably why. "Yeah, I'll be there."

"Whoooo! Blip bloop!" squealed the girl, jumping up and down excitedly.

"Whoa, calm down Bonnibel! I don't want people to think I'm going to go hang out with a dweeb!"

The girl stopped jumping and laughed softly, "Marceline, you're a vampire. You don't have to care what people think!"

Marcie was about to retort, but the girl had already skipped away. Suddenly there was a hand on Marcie's shoulder and she looked up into the glare behind Romulus's shag of hair- the look that he was ready to leave.

They flew into the sky and there was silence for a few moments before he said, "If you wish to visit the annoying pink girl then I must go with you to drop you off."

Marceline nodded compliantly. She was not surprised or incredibly offended that he had been eavesdropping. She was just glad he was letting her go. She furtively studied the pink handwriting on her grey skin. Aside from the coloring, it was not as feminine as she would have expected. In fact, it was barely legible chicken scratch.

She covered her nose with her hand and was overwhelmed by the sweet smell of bubblegum candy. She closed her eyes and smiled as memories filled her mind of her mom bringing her packages of gum every Christmas. Marcie would savor every single chew, not knowing when she would get another piece. When she opened her eyes again, she saw Romulus's cold, heartless face that ruled every aspect of her life.

She fought away the sting of tears as she got a stronger will to run away from him than she'd had in years.

_Author's note: To those who read my Fubblegum stories, the head cannon in this story is completely different, especially for Bonni. Most of you have probably already noticed that, seeing as this is around 300 years before Finn's birth._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: We're gonna be friends**

_Author's note: these next few chapters are memories that Marceline has about Bonnibel. These chapters should be a little shorter than usual, but should also come out faster. Title song by The White Stripes. Also, for anyone wondering, this is not a pairing fic. So there. Deal with it._

Marceline remembered the day Bonnibel told her about her past. That was the day things slowly started to change between them. They lay on the roof of Marcie's record store, staring at the stars (Bonnibel wanted to bring her telescope). It had been at least a century since Romulus had let Marcie go there without him, but he had been giving her a lot more freedom since she made friends with Bonni. This was more likely due to the fact that Marceline hassled him less about drinking when she could have girl time instead of to a genuine change of heart.

Marceline was just relieved they had somewhere to hang out besides Bonni's candy cottage. She felt out of place there ever since she first floated in the door. Everything was adorable, candy coated, and neon colored (including her hostess), and she just hovered there being all undead, scary, and grey.

"Oh, you wouldn't be interested in my past, Marcie!" Bonni said, starting to blush an even brighter shade of pink than usual.

"Why? You hiding some deep, dark secrets, kid?" Marceline asked playfully as she drained the color from an apple.

Bonni giggled, "No, it's just boring! I grew up in a library and you've been on adventures for hundreds of years!"

"Well, if it's that boring then it shouldn't take that long to tell me."

Bonni sighed, knowing Marcie would not drop it. "Well, I was raised by a group of old lady librarians. That's why I know so much about science. Books were my playscape."

"What about your parents?"

"I don't have any."

Marceline stared at her blankly, "Bonni, I would think that knowing as much about science as you do, you would have come across the birds and the bees talk."

"Well, I guess I must have come from somewhere, but no one knows where. Library princess just said I was left on a bookshelf as a baby with a note that said 'Raise our little princess well.' Do you think that could have been from my parents?"

"I don't see who else it would be from. Even I had human parents, Bonni."

"Really? What were they like?" she asked perkily.

Marcie gave her a sly glance, "You're trying to change the subject. Do you think you came from the candy mutants? Most of them that I meet can hardly form a sentence. That would be like Einstein having chimps for parents."

Bonnibel stared at Marcie, her pouty lips twisted in confusion.

"Sorry." said Marcie after a pause, "Pre-apocalypse reference. Anyways, how did you come to meet your peppermint friend?"

"I made him." said Bonni simply.

Marceline almost choked on the color she'd been sucking out of some punch, "You what? Is he a robot?"

"No. He's a candy man. You're not very observant, are you?" Bonni had an indifferent, although still perplexed tone of voice.

"So you can create life?" asked Marceline as she put her hands up.

"Yes. Modern science has led me to-"

"Shut up about science, Bonni! How in glob's name did you learn to do that when you're only 15?"

"Well, it did take me 10 years to master the technique." said Bonni, still with a disconcertedly calm countenance.

"So, you started this research when you were 5?" said Marceline skeptically.

"No, I started it when I was 13." she said innocently, not understanding Marceline's confusion.

There was a weird silence as they both stared at each other. Finally, Marceline flung her hands in the air and gave an exasperated sigh. "I may not be one for math, Bonni, but something is not adding up here."

"Well, I've been 15 for a while." replied Bonni with a shrug.

"How long ago were you born, Bonni?" asked Marceline testily, thinking this pink girl was crazy.

"Oh, I dunno…" Bonni thought for a second and moved her lips as she silently counted, "Maybe a century, give or take."

Marceline's jaw dropped, "So why the hell have you always told me you're 15?"

Bonni backed up, trying to piece together Marceline's reaction, until understanding dawned on her face. She began giggling, "Oh, you silly vamp! I didn't think you meant me to tell you my chronological age!"

Marceline growled. She hated being confused and hated being laughed at more, "What. Else. Would. I. MEAN?"

"Well, it doesn't matter as much because right now I am emotionally and physically 15!" Bonni stood to demonstrate her point. She spun around happily, almost completely flat chested, in blue overalls, big glasses, and a child-like grin on her face.

"Well, how do you age?" asked Marceline, now more curious instead of angry.

An excited smile spread across Bonni's face and Marceline recognized it as the _'I'm going to give you a sciency lecture.'_ look.

"Alright, so with other candy people, once the candy ages, so does their mind. However, with the malleable, stretchy, sticky qualities of bubblegum, I can have my peppermint friend help me replace my old gum. So, if I take gum away, I get younger. If I add more gum, I grow up again. If I go a long while without replacing the gum, my skin starts to fade, I get wrinkles, and I smell like that flavorless, too-long-chewed gum."

"So what's the oldest you've been?"

"Oh, probably around 50. I hadn't perfected the gum maintenance yet. I think 18 would be the perfect age to stay, so that's probably what I do when it's time for me to swap out my gum again."

"Wait, so, does that mean you're immortal?" Marceline suddenly sat up hopefully, imagining being friends with Bonni for centuries instead of for the span of a short, brutal, mortal life.

"Well, no. I'm part human, so that part of me will age. I've discovered that eventually the gum will lose it's elasticity effect on my age and I'll have to replace it more and more often to stay young until I just won't be able to keep up with it any more. According to my calculations, though, that won't happen for at least 500 years." Bonni's brow furrowed in thoughtfulness as she stared up into the night sky. She was still standing and Marceline watched her stare into the distance, her gummy hair dancing gently in the moonlight breeze.

"Doesn't that scare you? To know that you'll die?" asked Marceline thoughtfully.

Bonnibel turned to look her friend straight in the eye and said "Doesn't it scare you to know you never will?"

Marceline debated what to respond with, when she finally just went with the truth.

"Yes. All the time."

Bonni sat back down with a concerned frown. She looked taken aback, like she had expected Marcie to respond with a snarky come back (which she almost did). Then she did something quite unexpected; she scooted a little closer to Marceline, laid her head down on her shoulder, and hugged her gently around her waist. Marceline just laid there for a second, afraid to breath or move, before she relaxed and placed her hands on Bonni's shoulders.

"So, why do you want to be 18?" Marceline finally said, with a gentle, uncharacteristically nurturing tone.

"Oh, it just seems like the great age because I'll still be young, spry, and pretty, but just adult enough to rule a kingdom."

Marceline blinked a few times. _She is just full of surprises tonight,_ Marceline thought. Then she laughed, "You must have a small kingdom to all fit in that little cottage of yours."

Bonni scoffed, "No, I haven't made them yet!"

"So you want to make an entire kingdom of…peppermint friends?"

"Pshh! Not just peppermints! That would be redundant!" Bonni gave Marcie a mildly condescending look and Marceline shrugged, "I mean an entire Candy Kingdom! I've already started the plans. I'll build strong chocolate-dipped-banana-men to construct the Kingdom and the castle from my blueprints, then Gumdrop ladies to assist in the decorating, and I'll be making citizens!"

Marceline stared at Bonni, amazed at her quirky creative genius, "Well, if that's your thing then go for it!"

"Oh, that's not the best part! I will make my Kingdom one where there are festivals and parties all the time so that everyone is always happy and I will get to be their Princess so they can always be safe! I think being a princess and a leader is what I'm meant to do, and that's why that note said I was a princess."

Marceline smiled at Bonni and said, "Well, if anybody can do something like that you can. Just don't let the fame go to your head, Princess."

"Nie." muttered the girl sleepily in what Marceline could only assume was German. _Still full of surprises,_ Marceline thought.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Creep**

_Title song by Radiohead_

Marceline stepped back stage to see Bonni standing there with a smile that beamed glistening innocence. Marceline had just sung her first concert in ages with a whole new album worth of material. It was all thanks to Bonni- she was the inspiration and the support. Marceline doubted she knew that, though.

Lately Marceline had been thinking about Bonnibel at strange times. When she fell asleep at night, all she saw was her face- laughing, concentrating, fuming, crying, squinting, smiling, and every other expression she'd ever seen part those pink lips. When she woke up she thought of when she would see Bonni again. When Rom was being unpleasant, there was Bonni in her mind, telling her to kick his butt and stand up for herself.

It had taken her a long time to accept that she had a crush on her. It was more than a crush, actually, but she wasn't sure what to call it. She kept telling herself it didn't matter, though. For one, Bonni would never reciprocate such feelings. More importantly, even if she did, Rom would have her killed if she left him and if she started something secret with Bonni that would only put her in danger, too.

Spending time with her used to be a relief from the torture of being with Romulus, but now it had become its own form of torture as well. Marceline stood there as Bonni giggled with excitement and ran headlong into her arms. Marceline closed her eyes to savor the moment and placed her arms around her. She heard a couple of her band mates snicker. She was pretty sure it was because of Bonni's appearance. Thos big glasses were slightly off kilter on the bridge of her nose. She wore bright pink skinny jeans, yellow flats, and a flowy baby doll top with puffy sleeves. As if she could not look more kiddish, her hair was ton in a neat up-do with dozens of sparkly pink bows.

Marceline backed Bonni up and whispered, "Hey, since you're kind of my unofficial groupie now, how would you like a little make over? To make you look a little more rocker chick?"

"Oh, well that sounds fun!" Bonni chirped loudly. "You sure I could pull that off?"

"Oh, please! You're talking to the Vampire Princess! If anyone can make you look hardcore I can!" Marceline leaned against the wall and flipped back her razor cut hair with a haughty smile.

Marceline and Bonni walked back to her dressing room where Marcie guided her by the shoulders and plopped her down on a stool. The vampire floated slowly around Bonni in circles, trying to think of just the right look.

"Hmm, first of all the hair has got to go!" Marceline drank all the pink from her bows with a mighty sucking sound until they shriveled and fell out of her hair, releasing it around Bonni's shoulders.

"Aww, but my Ms. Marmallow spent a long time on my hair for tonight!"

Marceline gaped at Bonni skeptically. "Did you tell her it was for a rock concert or a tea-party-opera-ballet-prissy-dance?"

"Well, I haven't really _taught _her what rock concerts are yet, so I told her to just give me a do for a hardcore royal social…" mumbled Bonni with an embarrassed look.

For the first time that night Marcie paid attention to Bonni's face up close. Little dark circles were beginning to form under her eyes. "How many new subjects have you made lately?"

"Oh, maybe 7 in the past month." she said in almost a whisper.

"What? Bonni? When do you sleep?" shouted Marcie.

"Oh, you know, I squeeze in some shut eye here and there."

"_When?"_ hissed Marceline.

"Here and there." growled Bonni back with resolutelness.

There was a tense silence between them. Marceline knew when Bonni started to get feisty she could not be swayed.

Finally Marceline said, "Here, take these black boots in place of your yellow things." Bonni wordlessly slipped the boots on her long, slender legs and worked them up to her calves. "Ok, now let's just get your hair into a simple pony tail and leave a couple of strands in front of your face." Bonni threw her hair up. "Alright, now…"

Marceline looked down at her own shirt. It was the one she had designed for the record label. It was a pretty wicked design; it had two impaled undead cinnamon rolls strangling a snake in the water. Marceline never told Bonni the symbolism, but it was supposed to represent her and Bonni killing Romulus. It was probably a little unhealthy how often Marceline daydreamed of murdering her boyfriend. She thought undead sweets were a pretty clever combination of herself and Bonni mixed together, though.

"You should have this shirt." said Marcie finally.

"No way! You need that to promote your new record and junk!"

"I can print another. You deserve the original. I never would have made this album without you." said Marceline quietly.

"Well, alright, if you say so…thank you, Marceline." replied Bonni softly, clearly touched.

Marceline was about to head to her closet to change but before she turned around Bonnibel casually slipped her shirt off. Marceline froze, struggling to keep her eyes just on Bonni's face, but noticing the yellow lace bra from the edge of her vision.

"Umm, are you going to give me the shirt, Marcie?" asked Bonni, clearly not feeling the same tension.

Marceline tore her eyes away from her friend and jerked the shirt off, handing it back without looking. She heard the fabric rustle for a second before Bonni exclaimed, "Oh, I love this! It's so soft and comfy! I always read in books that best friends share clothes and now I can see why!"

Marceline still refused to look at her. Her eyes were getting slightly teary for some reason. She shook her head angrily at herself, which fluffed out her mane of black hair. Why was she feeling like this? It was probably because she had imagined having her shirt off around Bonni, but never this way. It was so casual. It meant nothing to Bonni- it was just like changing in front of a sister.

"Marceline?" asked Bonni, cautiously walking over to her and placing her hand on her back.

Marceline jumped back at feeling Bonni's touch on her bare skin. _'What is wrong with me?'_ she thought, _'Why can't I just be her friend without feeling like I need more, like a total creep? I'm going to ruin the friendship if I keep acting like this.'_

"Marceline did I do something wrong?" asked Bonni innocently.

Finally, Marcie looked at her. "No, Bonnibel. You're perfect." In that moment she really was to Marceline. The whole "makeover" thing was really just an excuse to give Bonni the shirt (in reality she could care less if her band mates or fans thought she looked silly). Marceline smiled at how cute she looked in it. Suddenly she realized she was still bare and exposed in her black bra (a fact that Bonni ignored far too easily) and she flew quickly into the closet to put another shirt on. She had never felt more unattractive than she did right then- floating half naked in front of someone she wanted more than anything and that person being completely unaffected by it.

Marceline realized she'd been hiding in the closet several minutes when Bonni knocked softly on the door. "Marceline? I know something is very wrong." There was a long pause until Marcie heard her lean her head on the door and whisper "Please don't shut me out."

Marceline flung the door open, staring at Bonni, "I want to tell you, but you wouldn't understand."

Bonni got a stern look on her face, took a deep breath, and said "I've kept my mouth shut a long time about you and Romulus, because every time I asked about it you would stop talking or make me leave."

Marceline's eyes widened. Did she really think all this was about Rom? Well, she had every right to think that, but Marceline had grown skilled at hiding her breakdowns about him.

"This has got to stop, Marceline." said Bonni sternly, "Why do you stay with him?"

"I told you to stay out of it, Bonni." said Marceline in a low, warning tone.

"No, I can't any more. He hits you, doesn't he?" Bonni asked, tears gurgling up in her voice, "I know vampires heal fast, so I can't see the marks, but I see how you won't look him in the eye. How you flinch a little when he tucks your hair back. How you do whatever he says when you fight with everyone else! I see all of that, and you expect me to do nothing!" Bonni was shouting now and sugary tears poured down her face.

Marceline wanted to just tell Bonni to shut up, but she had never seen her so upset before. "I didn't know you cared about me that much." she said in a shocked whisper.

"Of course I do! How could I not?"said Bonni tenderly.

"Do you want to know the real reason I was so upset?" asked Marceline urgently.

"Yes,_ please_, Marcie!"

"I don't think you know what you're asking for."

"Whatever it is I can help you through it, just let me in!" begged Bonni.

"All I want is for you to let me in." said Marcie, inches from Bonni's face, before she closed the distance and kissed her.

It lasted only a fraction of a second. The taste of salty, sugary tears. The squeak of surprise from Bonni. Then Marcie was pushed back, looking at Bonni's wide, confused eyes.

"I-I d-don't understand." Bonni stammered breathlessly.

Marceline's heart unbeating heart sank. Why had she done it like that? When Bonni was crying? When she didn't even know it was coming? When they were talking about Romulus?

She felt like she could not have picked a worse moment if she tried.

"Bonnibel, I'm so sorry." she croaked, "I should have just told you instead of doing something stupid like that."

Bonnibel was staring towards Bonni, but her eyes looked past her, glazed over with shock. "Told me what?" she asked in a flat tone.

"That I like you. A lot. Hell, I might even be falling in love with you, but I'll try not to if-" she sighed, "if you don't want me to. We can just forget tonight. Go back to being best friends, ok?"

"I just can't feel that way about you, Marceline." said Bonnibel somberly, "I wish I could. It would make all this simpler."

Marcie struggled to think of something to say, when a dark shadow casted over the two of them.

"Well, isn't this an interesting turn of events?" came the cold voice of Romulus Night above them.

Marceline's breath heaved from the terror welling up inside of her. After all she had done to keep her best friend out of her and Rom's mess; she threw her straight in the middle of it because of one stupid mistake.

Romulus closed the distance to them in a fraction of a second and soon Bonni's screams could be heard as he hoisted her into the sky.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Vindicated**

_Author's note: seeing as how the last reviewer threatened my life (jokingly, I assume) if I did not release another chapter soon, I probably should have posted this earlier, though. It just took me a lot of thought to get it how I wanted it, though. Stuff is coming back up from chapter 3, if any of you needs a refresher._

_Anyways, the title song is by Dashboard Confessional and it has amazing lyrics. Vindicated is a neat word because it can mean both to set free, to avenge, to justify, or to protect. Marceline does a little bit of all those things in this part of our story._

Romulus was out of Marceline's sight and scent range within two minutes.

Hot tears clouded her vision and her chest heaved. For once, though, this helplessness had become beyond unbearable. There was no way she would let Bonni die just because she was weak.

She flew frantically in circles, trying to keep her head straight and figure out where he would go. Suddenly an image of Bonni's body limp and white while Romulus smiled up at her with pink goo dripping from his fangs flashed through her head.

She curled into the fetal position, clutched her head, and let out a long, howling screech of pain.

"You called?" said a voice so meek and peaceful Marceline was not even sure if she heard it.

"Hello?" growled Marcie between her panicked gasps.

"Shhhh, it will be ok, Marceline." cooed the soft voice.

"Where are you? It is not ok! My best friend is about to die!" screamed Marcie.

"Oh, we have plenty of time. Look at those birds behind you."

Marcie spun around to see a flock of birds completely frozen in the air. "What's happening?" she whispered.

"I've frozen time. Notice how there's no breeze, no sound?" the child-like voice giggled with pride, "I won't be able to keep it this way for long, but I just had to talk to you."

Marceline gazed at the frozen world below her with amazement, "Thank you for buying me time, but can I at least see your face?"

"Certainly." hushed the voice, as a semi-transparent child with wild red curls appeared in front of Marceline's face. She looked to be only 8 years old, her face filled with beauty and innocence. Her cheeks were round and freckles dotted her button-nose. A kind, wise smile spread slowly across her lips until it crinkled into her electric blue eyes. Suddenly a tug of familiarity jolted Marceline from her panicked state.

"Greta?" she breathed in shock.

"Yes, my friend, Greta the Ghost at your service!" she said with a playful, exaggerated curtsey.

Marceline lunged forward to hug her, but merely ended up soaring through the cold, ghostly vapor. She shook her head, mumbling about not thinking straight. She knew ghosts couldn't be hugged. She turned back to face her friend and said with somberness, "I'm sorry."

"Why would you be sorry, Marceline? You were a wonderful friend to me." said Greta with a bewildered voice.

"No, I wasn't." whispered Marceline. "I didn't stay with you until the end. All these years I wondered if you woke up later just to not see me there. I wondered if you thought I abandoned you."

"But you did stay with me until the end, Marceline."

"What?"

"I drew my last breath just as your father dragged you away. I knew it was never your fault for leaving. My ghost saw you leave."

Marceline blinked several times processing this new version of events, "Then why? Why did you never say anything to me? For centuries?"

Greta sighed and gazed up at a shooting star, frozen in the night sky. "Because me keeping my distance from you was the only thing that held me to earth."

Marceline stared at Greta in disbelief.

Greta looked back into the vampire's crimson eyes, "When I died, I had the option to move on, but something made me want to stay. I felt that I needed to thank you for your kindness, but I knew that after I did that, I would ascend to the 50th dimension. So, I watched you grow, and I watched the world change. I decided that I would help you in a time of dire need to thank you. I wanted to help you every time Romulus laid hands on you, but without your oppression from him, you never would have accepted friendship with Bonnibel."

"You did all that for me? What about seeing your family again?"

"I have correspondence with them and they know of my mission here. As one of the only ghosts to stay on earth by choice, I have gained certain powers due to the 'purity of my heart,' or whatever Death called it. There's freezing time, ultimate invisibility, and the power to see different moments in space time, and a few other minor ones."

"Holy shniz-not, Greta! I never would have thought you would come out so kick-butt!" laughed Marceline.

"Well, thank you, but I must tell you what I came for. Time will not be frozen for much longer."

"Oh, glob, Bonni! How are you going to help me get her back?" Marceline felt fear set in again as she imagined time unfreezing and Romulus's mouth lowering to her throat.

"There will be enough time to save her. First I must tell you something you have to do in your future."

Marceline nodded urgently, "Yes, anything, Greta."

"When you were a demon child, before you met me, you met a crazy old man with people frozen in tubes."

"Yes, the dead tube peeps." nodded Marcie.

"They are not dead. They will be alive as soon as they are unfrozen."

"What? Is that possible? The old man talked of unfreezing them, but I thought he was just crazy!"

"Well, that was one thing he was right about. Now listen, one of the females was sadly brain damaged in the freezing process, but she is with child. That child will become a great hero. He will save the entire world, the land of Ooo, and also he will save you."

"How the flop could a mortal save me?"

"I see you have learned underestimating mortals from your father. Do not make that mistake with him. He will rescue you not only from eminent danger, but from long centuries of loneliness."

Marceline stared, the content of the prophecy repeating over and over in her mind. Quickly she shook it off and mumbled, "Whatever."

"Listen, Marcie! I will send a signal from the 50th dimension when you need to go unfreeze the impregnated woman! You must heed this signal, or your whole world will be destroyed!"

"The world was already destroyed. Can you just tell me how to save Bonni?" she moaned impatiently.

"LISTEN!" said Greta. She was not even yelling, but her voice was so uncharacteristically stern that Marceline shrunk back a little. "The world was _almost_ destroyed by the Mushroom war, but the next threat will leave no hope for life to return at all. This hero will stop that threat from happening. When the land's greatest Princess makes her announcement of one called 'the Lich,' that will be your signal to wake the tube people. A humanoid hero will be there to defeat the Lich the first time, but he will not be around the second time. That is why it is vital that the hero be of age to fight it at that time."

Marceline nodded, her eyes wide.

"So you understand? You must not wake them before or long after that announcement."

"Yes, I understand, Greta."

"Good, then." sighed the ghost girl, "Alright now, Bonnibel. All you need to defeat Romulus is two things. The first is your axe bass."

"But that's back at the concert arena! What if Rom is guarding it?"

"Reach out to your right."

Marceline did so and felt the familiar handle of the ultimate weapon/instrument. As soon as she clutched it, the axe bass materialized in front of her.

"Ultimate invisibility." said Greta simply, "Allows anything to become invisible to mortal and immortal alike, except to the one who wields it. It will be your best advantage for Mr. Night to assume you are unarmed."

"This is wicked…" whispered Marcie as she strapped it to her back, "What's the second thing I need?"

"To know that you are stronger than him." said Greta firmly.

"But I'm not. He's the King."

Greta smiled, "You forget that I can see the future. If you're not stronger than him, then why is he never in it past this night?"

Marceline bore her fangs in a confident grin, suddenly knowing that his reign of terror was nearly over. A large portal of light began to open in the heavens, causing both her and Greta to look up.

"It looks like it's time." whispered Greta. Then she floated up to Marcie and hovered next to her in the closest way she could attempt a hug, "Thank you for being my friend. And for taking care of Hambo."

"I will stay here with you until it's your time to leave again." said Marceline tenderly.

"You can't. Time is unfreezing."

Marceline looked at the birds, seeing their wings very slowly start to move again.

"Romulus is at the record store." said Greta.

"Thank you. I'll never forget you."

Greta nodded as she began to ascend to the portal, and Marceline raced towards the record store with a speed and a purpose she had never felt before.

XXX

Marceline crashed through the roof of the record store, drop kicking Romulus in the face as he towered over Bonnibel. She had recognized his stance as the one he had just before he struck someone.

Romulus skidded across the floor with a hiss, "Marceline! You got here fast, my darling! A new record for you!"

Marceline lunged at her old lover, claws rapidly growing from her fingers. Romulus met her in mid air and slammed her into the ground as easily as one swats away a fly. Terrified, muffled screams started to come from Bonnibel's tied up face.

Marceline stood up and wiped the red from her busted lip, which healed within seconds. She looked at Bonni and began to morph into her fighting form. Her jaws unhinged, her fangs elongated, and rippling muscles spread across her growing body until she was 10 feet tall and looked like a zombie wolf.

"Oh, Marceline, you want to play rough tonight!" growled Romulus, growing into his full form. He grew until he crashed what was left of the record store's roof, and stopped when he was twice the height of Marceline and covered in scales.

Marceline knew it took one a second to get oriented after transforming, so she took her chance to leap up and sink her teeth into his neck. A deafening hiss escaped from him as the blood he'd sucked came streaming out of him. His claws dug painfully into Marceline's back as he flung her into the wall, demolishing one fourth of her records instantly.

She stood, a fleeting thought of sadness rushed through her that she didn't listen to her favorite Hendrix album one more time, before she felt herself hoisted up and slammed into the ground. The giant reptilian Romulus held her down with a growl as he stabbed her slowly in the stomach. Marceline howled and reached up to slash across his chest madly. Soon, they were both lying there naked in their normal forms, a pool of red around them.

He stood and backed away from her, shrugging on a robe and tossing her a black dress while he kept his eyes on her. She could have sworn she saw fear flash in his eyes for a split second.

"My dear," he said with a slow drawl and a smile, "It has been so long since I've seen that much fight in you. We've both lost too much red already to transform. That is going to make things quite fun." He walked slowly over to Bonnibel, who continued to thrash and squeal in her confines.

"Back away from her, Romulus." Marceline warned.

"Or what?" He teleported over to Bonni, his fangs suddenly hovering above her neck. "Take one more step and she's either dead or a vampire."

Marceline froze. Had Greta not foreseen this possibility? How was she supposed to kill him when he was using Bonni as a shield?

Romulus held Bonni to his chest as he stood. He stroked her hair in mock tenderness as she tried her best to lean away from him. Tears began to streak down her cheeks and he licked one off casually. It took every ounce of resolve Marceline had to not go ballistic once she saw the tip of his forked tongue on her skin.

"Hmm, a little sweet for my taste, but your blood will be much better." he said conversationally to Bonnibel. Then he turned to Marceline and asked curiously, "Do you remember when I told you I had always wanted to try a delicate shade of pink the night we met? Haven't you ever wondered why I never took your little friend's blood before?"

"Because I was stupid. I thought maybe it was because you cared for me."

"Ah, _mi princessa_, of course I care. She's no good for you, though. Really, I would have been doing you a favor to rid you of her long ago. Mortals make don't make good companions once they get old and die, so you should have never gotten close to her in the first place."

Marceline knew he was wrong, and didn't care what he had to say. She just wanted to buy more time while she thought of what to do, "Then why have you let her live this long?"

"Because like all women, you have to be trained to act appropriately. I knew that you would betray me eventually. I could see how you resented me every time you forced me to discipline you. This girl was a great thing to hold against you when your betrayal happened."

Marceline felt the anger rising in her chest, but she struggled to control herself. He obviously wanted her to lose her temper and get careless.

"Of course, the fact that you betrayed me with her- well that makes things even better. Now I'll enjoy her blood twice as much." he said in a quiet hiss, closing his mouth against Bonni's throat.

"Wait!" cried Marceline. He looked up and she knew she only had seconds to make her case. "Please, kill me before you kill her. I can't stand to watch it!"

Romulus arched his eyebrows in surprise. "Seriously? You're just giving up?"

"What else can I do? I'm so sorry, Bonnibel. I never meant for this to happen." Bonnibel stared at Marceline with wide, scared eyes and Marceline inwardly flinched. She knew that begging for mercy would be the most sure thing to distract him.

Romulus teleported himself over to Marcie, holding her up by her hair, "I won't kill you. You don't deserve that kind of mercy. You just gave me a brilliant idea for what you should really do." He clutched her head painfully and said, "I'll let you take the opening sip."

Romulus used one hand to restrain her hands behind her back and the other to yank her hair back until her mouth was forced open. He flew over towards Bonni, presenting Marceline's fangs.

Marceline clutched the sharp end to her invisible axe with the tips of her fingers and slid it to make a deep cut in Romulus's hand (only a demon's blood weapon is the only thing that can make a vampire bleed so easily).

Romulus yanked his hand back instinctively, hissing in surprise. As soon as Marceline's arms were free she unsheathed the weapon and swung it with all her might, slicing off the arm that clutched her hair. A howl emitted from Romulus.

He clutched the nub that was his arm, a look of wild confusion in his eyes. He stripped his stained white shirt off his pale torso and wrapped it in a second around the nub. Next he was hurling himself towards Marceline, his face contorted and his jaw fully unhinged, but she was ready. With one last swoop of the axe, she made contact with his neck.

There was a sickening crack and sputtering sound as his head dethatched from his body, and two loud thumps as the head and his body fell to the floor.

As his body still writhed around wildly, Marceline methodically set fire to it using just her eyes.

"Bow to your new queen, you soulless monster." she said coldly as his body melted from existence.

Marceline took a sudden deep, haggard breath. At first she thought it was emotion from killing someone she used to think she loved, but then she realized that feeling was power; it was the power that Romulus had spreading into her veins as he died and it was intoxicating.

She rushed over to Bonnibel and tore the restraints off her. Before Bonni could even move her arms again, Marceline collapsed on her in tight hug. Bonni placed her hands timidly on Marceline's back.

"I'm so glad you're ok." breathed Marceline as she stroked the back of Bonni's hair.

"Thank you, Marcie." whispered Bonni, giving her a squeeze. Then she backed up to look at her bloodied friend, "Do you require medical attention? Was killing Romulus hard on you?"

Marceline shrugged, "Nah, it's cool." She was lying just a little bit.

"I will give you a banquet to thank you for saving me."

"What? I don't need a banquet!" scoffed Marcie, "Let's just, like, go get snow cones or something."

"No, a princess thanks her knights with banquets."

"Oh, so I'm a knight now, am I? I was under the impression that I was Marceline the Vampire Queen."

"Yes, of course. You'll need to come dressed in your best royal outfit, then."

Bonnibel summoned a gigantic bird from the sky and suddenly was flying away into the night sky, saying something about seeing Marceline at the banquet. All Marceline had time to say was "I don't _do_ royal outfits."

Suddenly Marceline stood in the wreckage of her obliviated record store alone. The ashes of her ex-boyfriend blew in the breeze around her. Slowly, methodically, she floated above the remains of her old home, and set the entire place on fire. She watched the flames dance, smelled the smoke rising in pillars to the sky, and felt the heat reaching her skin painfully.

So she was the queen. What now?


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Sunburn**

"_She burns like the sun, and I can't look away."_

Marceline sat, hugging her knees, in the wreckage of where her record store used to be. The gothic mansion that she had lived with when she was with Romulus was rightfully hers, but all she could remember was what a prison it could be. The wreckage of an ancient store was more of a home than that place could ever be, and she was presently too apathetic to move on and find a better home.

She had finally wrought justice on her cruel king, lover, and captor. She was the Queen of vast armies of undead minions and had gained powers beyond what she expected. Physically, she was stronger, faster, and more terrifying than any being in Ooo.

In the depths of her unbeating heart, however, she had never felt weaker. It had been two months since the night of Romulus's death. Something had been different about her; she was cold and formal. Those last few moments she was like someone Marceline didn't even know. It was unsettling, and the few times Maceline dreamed now, it was nightmares about Bonnibel changing. Suddenly she was left with an army of fans and subjects, but not a single person she could call a friend.

She had tried going to see her. She sent her minions of skeletons to find the colorful, developing kingdom and went, even though Bonnibel used to always say she didn't want Marceline until it was "finished." As she got more and more obsessed with it, Marceline had the feeling that it would never be finished. Bonnibel would devote her life to building and building until her gum gave out on her.

She was sent away every time. Peppermint friend, who was now dressed in a suit and dubbed "Peppermint Butler," sent her away, saying the Princess was not well enough to receive any visitors. Marceline was worried about her, and pissed that no would tell her what made her sick. She started to wonder if it was all just a ploy to keep her away. So, day after day, Marceline went back and floated outside of Bonnibel's tower. Some days she played her songs. Some days she said nothing at all and just stared. Some days she just talked to her, like she used to, but it reminded her more of talking to a headstone than to her old friend with all the response she got. There was not even a peep from the other side of the wall, or a single flutter of the curtains. The only thing that convinced Marceline that she was in there was that the smell of bubblegum was considerably stronger there than in the rest of the kingdom.

Then, one day, Marceline heard it; there were footsteps. They were slow, uneven, and at times it sounded like one foot was dragging. Marceline perked her ears up and heard dragging. It was ragged and shallow, but it was Bonnibel's for sure.

"BONNIBEL!" shouted Marceline desperately. The candy guards glared at her, but they all knew there was nothing they could do. The only reason they let her come every day was because she could obliterate them all with just her eyes if she wanted to. Marceline listened closely, to hear the steps stop completely. The breathing continued, though.

"Bonnibel, please let me in! I don't care if you're sick, and you obviously won't pass anything to me. Just please let me see you." Marceline was begging. She never begged, but there she was almost to tears.

There was only the breathing on the other side of the wall.

"Please-" Marceline croaked in a whisper, "It's been so lonely without you. If I did anything wrong, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I kissed you. I'm sorry Romulus ever laid a single hand on you. I promise I'll never hurt you again."

A low, raspy voice that was distinctly Bonnibel's answered, "Not yet, Marceline. I'm not ready."

"Why won't you confide in me anymore?" asked Marceline, "Will you at least explain to me what the lump is going on?"

"You will see at the banquet. Please go."

"When will that be?" Marceline spat angrily. She was so relieved to hear her voice, but was and confused as to why it sounded so distant.

"I'm not sure yet, but I will have my delivery lollipop boy let you know."

"Will things ever be how they used to?"

"You really need to move one, Marceline. That was 3 years ago."

"Wh-what?" Of course Marceline had heard what she said; she just couldn't make sense of it.

She heard an exasperated sigh, "Please go home and wait for news of the banquet."

Tears stung Marceline's eyes. She felt confusion, loneliness, guilt, and anger all welling up inside of her at once. "What the hell, Bonnibel? I don't even have a home to go back to! Of course, you'd know that if you cared about me at all! What changed you? What do you mean it's been 3 years?"

Marceline waited several minutes with no answer. Suddenly, without thinking, Marceline lifted her axe bass from behind her back and with a mighty swing shattered the Princess's window. She felt the overwhelming need to know what was going on.

She leaped in and saw something that would never erase itself from her memory.

Bonnibel stood before her, a droopy, globby mess of bubblegum standing a foot taller than Marceline. One of her eyes had sunk down to where her chin should be and her hair was a soupy mess dripping towards the floor and leaving a slime trail in her wake.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" she shrieked, "I'M NOT SOLIDIFIED YET! THEY ADDED TOO MUCH GUM! LEAVE NOW!"

Marceline just stood, her mouth open as she stared in horror at the state of her friend. "Bonnibel I- I'm sorry. I feel like a jerk and-"

"GUARDS, SEIZE HER!" PB screeched, as she walked away on her semi-liqiudy feet.

Marceline saw two chocolate-covered-banana-men guards instantly appear on either side of her. She could kill them instantly (something they both seemed to know since they were shaking), but she didn't want to hurt Bonnibel more than she already had. She sloped into their thin arms and closed her eyes as she allowed herself to be dragged out of her friend's chambers.

She played a few random lines on her guitar as the memories of that night flashed before her again. Suddenly she heard a faint whimpering and looked up at a quivering little candy apple holding an envelope far too big for him. He had thin little legs, frightened, beady eyes, and a stick coming out of his butt through the layer of shiny candy coating.

"What do you want?" asked Marceline flatly.

"De-delivery for you, Princess." squeaked the little glazed fruit, shutting his eyes tight and holding up the envelope.

Marceline snorted with derision as she took the envelope, "You can look at me, you know. I'm not Medusa."

The apple obediently opened his eyes, but looked confused, "I-I know you're name is not Medusa, you majesty. It's Marceline."

She sighed and rolled her eyes, "Honestly, I'm 800 years old and I still make allusions to the old world."

The apple asked something else, but Marceline was not listening because she had now opened the envelope. Sure enough, it was an opulent, colorful, heavy cardstock invitation to a banquet in her honor. It was due to happen that very night.

"Well, would you look at that…" said Marceline to herself.

"Your majesty?" asked the apple in an even higher pitched voice.

Marceline grew tired of him quaking in fear for no reason and decided to give him a reason. Making her face grow out her fangs and snout, and light up her red eyes, she whirled around to the tiny apple boy and roared "WHAT?"

"EEP!" the apple squealed as he jumped, the wooden stick shooting out of his butt.

Marceline, already back to normal form, said "Seriously, what is it, little dude?"

The apple looked more pathetic than ever now, covering his head and shaking violently, "The princess sends her apologies. She wants you to know she was really only being like that because she needed her gum replaced and that she looks forward to seeing you tonight. As a small token of friendship, she has sent me so that you can have your way with me."

"What does she-" Marceline stopped midsentence and smiled, "Oh, so that's why she sent a red apple instead of that lollipop boy she mentioned!"

"Yes!" shouted the apple bursting into tears.

"Whoa, whoa, this has gone on enough. Please stop being so freaked." groaned Marcy.

"But you're going to kill me!" screamed the apple.

"Umm, no I'm not. I don't even eat apples. I just eat the color red."

"Oh." the apple muttered, uncovering his eyes and looking up at her, "Will that hurt?"

"No one's ever told me it has. You'll be a white apple! How cool is that? You can tell all the ladies you're exotic!" Marceline picked the little apple up and tickled his tummy.

He giggled, "That does sound pretty math, actually!"

"Good, because you look delicious!" said Marceline, quickly sucking the color out from the apple's skin.

The white little apple stood admiring his new style as Marceline licked her lips.

"Wow, this is awesome! Hey, your majesty, do you think you could do me a little favor?" asked the apple slowly.

"Um, sure, what is it?" asked Marceline cautiously as she watched the apple turn around and bend over.

"Could you put my stick back in?" asked the apple, a little blush creeping into his cheeks.

"Gross." muttered Marceline.

_A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update! Thank you to everyone who encouraged me to keep going! I know the chapter was a little short, but I like how it turned out. The apple was an unexpected OC, but he was fun to write! Chapter title song by Muse._


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Falling**

_A/N: Chapter title song by Florence and the Machine, as well as the lyrics later in the chapter (if the lyrics are ever wrong, then that is a purposeful alteration to fit the story, not a mistake). So, do you guys like that each chapter is a different song? I just would like to know, because it takes a while for me to find a good song for each chapter. Anyways, thanks for reading!_

Banana guards hastily threw open the candy castle doors as Marceline gracefully floated up the stair way, her new little albino apple friend sitting happily on her shoulder and her axe bass strapped to her back. Marceline nodded proudly at the guards, feeling eerily elegant in her new strapless gown that her loyal followers had spun from deep scarlet gossamer around the cemetery. The light, airy webbing clung to her slender, willowy body and blew about her feet in intricate tendrils and curls, making her look even more ethereal than a beautiful, floating woman usually would. Her hair cascaded around her in shining waves.

She would never admit to Bonnibel how long she took getting ready. She was not that kind of girl- to be late just from freaking out over stupid lumping vanity. No, no, Marceline told herself she was only late because it's _cool_ to be late and that she was not fixing her heels as she rushed out the door.

Silence fell around the room as Marceline entered and her eyes were assaulted by a barrage of colors. She scanned the hall until her eyes landed on a woman standing calmly in a poufy, off-the shoulder dress that looked more like a cupcake than an article of clothing. Marceline cocked her head in confusion as she came closer. A golden crown sat on the woman's head with a simple blue jewel on top like an antenna. Her skin was pink, as well as her hair which nearly touched the floor. She had to be Bubblegum, but Marceline didn't remember her being so _tall._

She floated up slowly and began to ask "Bonni-?"

Bonnibel held her dainty hand up to cut off Marceline and nodded to Peppermint Butler, who stood loyally at her side. The little striped man cleared his throat and put a microphone up to his mouth, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Crunchies and Chewies of the Candy Kingdom! Princess Bubblegum would like to present to you our guest of honor tonight- Marceline the Vampire Queen!"

There was applause and cheering around the room for Marceline. She felt that she was expected to curtsey, but instead just winked and spun around up into the air once.

Peppermint Butler continued once the applause died down. "The Vampire Queen may appear intimidating, but we assure you that you have no need to fear her as she is a dear friend of the Princess's. She saved Princess Bubblegum's life from the wicked Vampire King and for that we, as the Candy citizens, thank her."

Peppermint Butler bowed and waved his hand over to Marceline, indicating more applause. Princess Bubblegum descended the stairs regally and said, "Marceline, I would like to crown you our Kingdom's first knight. Do you accept this honor?"

Marceline looked around and snorted. She found all of the fuss more than a little ridiculous. She looked at her friend, lowered her voice, and said, "Are you for reals, Bonnibel?"

A mean look quickly flashed over Bonni's face and she whispered, "Yes! And please do not refer to me by my first name in front of my subjects! It's disrespectful!"

Marceline straightened her posture and glared, trying to keep her temper in check. She projected her voice so that all in the room could hear, "You ask me to become your knight, _Princess_, as if I'm one of your loyal subjects. Well, I don't subject myself to the rule of others. You should know that since you were my friend before you were royalty. So, it's as your friend that I'll do things for you, but never as your servant."

"Marceline, I think there's been a miscommunication." said the Princess sternly, not breaking eye contact, "In this kingdom being a knight is an honor, and is the ultimate sign of being allies."

"Well, Princess, if that's true then thanks but no thanks. I would like to think that we were already allies."

The two powerful women stared at each other tensely before Bonnibel finally relented, "Very well then. In that case I shall simply extend my thanks to you as a friend." She then turned to her subject and her face immediately brightened, "Let's get this party started!"

An obscure band made completely out of pretzel people started and the candy couples began to dance. Marceline looked around to spot her white apple friend dancing with a sexy green apple babe, while a line of other apple females watched with jealousy. She was glad at least he was having a good time at the stupid banquet. When she turned back around she saw Bonnibel was already half way across the room attending to her other guests.

For a banquet that was meant for her, Marceline certainly felt unnoticed. She slung her bass over her shoulder and strolled outside into the garden. Sloping against a rock candy wall, she began strumming a new tune:

"_I've fallen out of favor_

_And I've fallen from grace_

_Fallen out of trees and I've fallen on my face_

_Funny with all this floating_

_How much falling I do-_

_**I fell out of your opinion**_

_**When I fell in love with you."**_

Marceline began to hum mournfully as she played with notes in the chorus. She kicked off the stupid heels she'd put on just an hour before and smeared make up off her face with her forearm angrily.

"_Sometimes I wish for falling,_

_Wish for the release_

_Wish for falling through the air to give me some release._

_**Because fallings not the problem,**_

_**When I'm falling I'm at peace**_

_**It's only when I hit the ground that causes all the grief.**_

_This is a song for a scribbled out name_

_And my love keeps writing again and again…._

_I'm not scared to jump and I'm not scared to fall_

_If there was nowhere to land I wouldn't be scared_

_At all…."_

Marceline trailed off and threw her head up to look at the full moon. She had the urge just to ditch that lame-sauce banquet, transform to a wolf monster, and run through the night with a pack of feral, rough friends.

"That sounds like another wonderful song, Marceline. New album?" came a soft, feminine voice.

Marceline turned to see Bonnibel standing in the doorway and felt all the red she ate earlier creep up into her face in an angry blush. She shot her eyes towards the ground and fiddled with the knobs on her guitar. "What's up, Bonni?"

"I wanted to see that you were enjoying your banquet. Some other guests began talking to me and then when I came back you were gone."

A faint, bitter smirk came onto Marceline's face, "Something told me that this banquet is more for you than me."

Bonni gasped indignantly, "Why, whatever do you mean?"

"I mean _you know me._ Do I like any of this stuff here, Bonni? Admit it; this was just an excuse to throw your first big, fancy royal gig with some kind of reason."

Bonni's tiny fists balled up and she shouted, "Well, if you don't like my kingdom then you don't like me! So, if you feel that way then you can leave and go do your stupid vampire stuff!"

"Whoa, whoa, Bonnibel! I like you, ok?" Marceline rushed over to Bonnibel and stood for a few seconds before gingerly placing her hands on her shoulders and looking into her eyes, "I like the kingdom, too. I just want my friend back. I want to write songs and shoot darts. I want to go flying through the night sky with you."

"Don't you see, Marceline?" said PB slowly, a sad look on her sweet face, "That's all the stuff you like. I mean, I like it, too. My kingdom is what I like the most, though. When I was finally brave enough to include you in it, you just embarrassed me in front of my people."

"Well, I'm sorry, PB. Can you understand why I did, though? I know I may not act like it, but I'm royalty, too; and I've never asked you to be my knight or go to a fancy party."

Bonnibel sighed, leaning up against the wall next to her undead friend, "I guess you're right, Marceline. I wouldn't have time to be a knight for your kingdom because I've got my own."

Marceline grinned and sighed with relief, "So, I'll make nice at this fancy banquet if you help me write songs some time soon. What do you say?"

"Oh yeah, that is always what we used to do, isn't it?" said Bonnibel thoughtfully.

"Do you still think it was three years ago?" asked Marceline warily.

Bonnibel looked at her with wide eyes, "It is for me. I told you the next time they replaced my gum I would be 18. That's three years older than I was when we last hung out, so I remember all those times like they were three years ago."

Marceline looked at the purple dirt on the ground, trying to think of what to say, "You realize it wasn't three years for me, right?"

"I know, but you should act like it was." said Bonnibel in an almost warning tone.

Marceline scrunched her face at her old friend, "What are you talking about?"

"I mean things are never going to be like they were back then. I'm an adult now. I have my first responsibilities towards my subjects and I don't have time to just hang out listening to music and exploring Ooo like I used to."

"So that's it?" shouted Marcy, tossing her bass aside, "You're just going to blow me off and hang out with me out of pity once every two months?"

"No, it's not like that!" gasped Bonni, her voice filled with hurt, "I have obligations now-"

"Like I didn't?" screeched Marceline with a hiss, "I hung out with you when I was Princess of the Undead, not of some tiny kingdom that could be wiped out by a fat guy!"

"Well, for you it's different!" shouted Bonnibel, stomping her little foot, "The government of the undead are a bunch of Libertarian Anarchists!" She began to pace and her voice became light and airy, "Candy people, on the other hand, need order, protection, rules-"

"You mean they need a lumpin' dictator?" spat Marceline.

Princess Bubblegum stopped in her tracks and stared Marceline down, breathing hard. Finally she said barely above a whisper, with a bite in each word, "How. Dare. You!"

The two women just stared at each other, and Bonnibel was fuming so hard that she was shaking.

"Please leave." whispered the princess.

Marceline blinked several times in surprise, and finally saw that their friendship might be ending, "Why, Princess Bubblegum? I thought this was my banquet. I'll be good the rest of the time, ok?"

"I want you to go, Marceline." said Bubblegum again quietly, refusing to even look her in the eye.

Marceline stood there for a long time, waiting to know what to say. Suddenly, a new thought occurred to her, "You know what? I don't think you needed to replace your gum yet. You did it because I kissed you. You did it because you were scared of how close we were, didn't you?"

Bubblegum said nothing, only glared.

"It makes sense." Marceline continued, "You were building your kingdom just fine before, and then I kiss you and you change your gum and won't give me the time of day because of your 'royal obligations.'"

"Think what you will." said Bonnibel coldly, turning her back to go back inside, "It doesn't really matter."

Marceline watched her go and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, Banana guards surrounded Marceline. She rolled her eyes; as if they could possibly be a threat to her. "Don't sweat it, guys, I'll show myself out."

The Banana guards all sighed with relief as Marceline grabbed her bass and began to float up into the night sky from the garden.

"Oh my glob, don't tell me you're gonna take that mess!" someone shouted from below her. Marceline scanned the trees and saw a punk rocker looking dude waving to her.

Marceline floated down to him and looked at him skeptically. He had a black muscle shirt, blue skin and pointed ears like her father, and a long, white Mohawk. "Maybe I am, since when is it your beeswax? Were you eavesdropping on us?"

"Look, woman, it doesn't matter if I was eavesdropping. I just heard two dames going at it as I passed and was hoping to spy in on a hot catfight." Marceline began morphing into hideous beast before the guy said, "Whoa, whoa! I can transform, too, so before we go destroying half the forest, what do you say we crash this party?"

Marceline changed quickly back to normal, and was conflicted only a few seconds before shrugging. "Sounds like that will be the most fun I've had all night. You got any ideas?"

"Are you kidding? I wrote the book on party crashing. Also, I wrote one on pranking. Oh, and I have another one about knitting, but that really doesn't have anything to do with-"

"Just get started before I kick your butt." growled Marcie.

"Yeah, yeah, sure." waved the guy apathetically, "My name's Ash, by the way."


End file.
